"Intex 28685 Pool EcoFriendly Solar Heating Mat, Includes 32mm hose attachment points Suitable for above-ground pools with a capacity less than 30,280L"

I bought two of these as I was told by a neighbour that they didn’t work that well….. we have a 3 x 2 m 800 gallon pool and one is fine. It doesn’t work quickly but it does work. It is well made - if a bit of a faff to put together. I have had not leak from it despite my loony Labrador jumping out of the pool onto it!! We have found the water still warms up even with the handle turned off, as it still runs through the larger tubes. After a hot day the pool is actually a bit too warm, but I’ll take that over the usual shock!! It is good value for money….. but, we had to buy a larger pump as the one we had - which was arguably too small for our size of pool anyway - would never have had the power to push water through this heater!

For the money, these actually made more of a difference that i expected - was sceptical at first. I purchased 2 & linked together. Measured temperature of water in the pool and the water returning into the pool (after passing through mats) and was up to 6/7 degrees Celsius hoter (on a 29 degrees c day). When you put your hand to the return outlet water was noticeably warm. Ultimately made all the difference. Meant my 3yr old and her mum weren't cold. Difference between them being in the pool & not. Fact that you can open/close valves on the mat(s) is good feature. Open to allow water to pass through & heat up during the day, and close at night so that you can run the filters. Good quality. Would purchase more if had the space but even 2 takes up enough. When hot day, mats can get very hot if valves are closed, please be aware.

I had high hopes after reading the reviews. It made perfect sense that these should work. I bought two mats. Our pool is fairly modest (8ft circular). I set up as per the instructions, nice sunny spot: Issue 1 - the flow rate was non existent, our filter/pump isn't the strongest so bought a 800 gal/ph thinking this would solve the issue. It didn't, pump on its own was very powerful but as soon as you put it through the mats you couldn't even feel it on the return hose to the pool. So I sent that one back and got an evening more powerful one (1000 gal/ph) but the same issue. Could just feel it coming through but the flow rate was pathetic. Slowing the water down that much I'm sure would eventually destroy the pump. Issue 2 - this is linked the the first issue, the mats won't stay flat, they bunch up causing kinks. Issue 3 - even once I had them fairly flat and a trickle of flow going through them on a warm sunny day with them in full sunlight for hours it made no difference. Not sure if I had a bad batch but I certainly wouldn't buy again. Gave up in the end and sent them back. Very disappointed. Going to have to resort to good old electric heater

Brilliantly simple. Increased the temp of a 10 foot pool by 5 degrees C in a few hour (25 to 30 C). Was expecting a longer marginal gain but on a hot summer day this really makes the pool much more comfortable for the kids for long pool times. Really simple to setup. The black mat gets really hot in the sun before to get water flowing and then it cools as it’s taking all that heat into the pool. Genuinely surprised how effective this is.

I was a bit dubious after reading some of the reviews but I'm glad I bought this. Exceptional value for money. The build quality is good with sturdy fixtures and thick plastic heat mat. It didn't take long to setup on our pool and it fits in really well. It has definitely improved the heat level in the pool as you can feel it coming out the inlet pipe and we have one of the larger rectangular pools.

Works reasonably well but the pump on the intex pool is not really powerful enough to filter and push through this, could do with an upgraded pump in combination with the solar heater and filters.

My system is a bit heath Robinson but was trying to find a cheaper way to heat the hot tub. The pictures were taken on 8 July 22 . It was very sunny and hot. 25 Deg in East of England. The instructions say don't put on the roof , but I've a sturdy log cabin and 2x8 beams inside. Since the roof gets hot it seams ideal. I've a 1500l/h pump which isn't strong enough really. Getting connectors to fit was a pain. But my old hottub pipes were just the right size to jam in the panels connectors. I then used standard hose pipe connectors to get the water from the pool , up 2.5m to the first panel. The slower the flow rate the hotter it gets. 56 was because the rate was too slow. But I started with pool temp at 26 Deg at 11am and had standing water heating up in the panels all morning. By 5pm the pool temp is up to 34.5. and water from the roof is 40. The digital thermometer is also on Amazon. 8 quid for 3. Room temp for the pool room is 32.1 Until my bigger pump turns up , I have to feed mains water pressure from the garden hose to remove the air and get the flow going again. Yes it's a bit of a faff but for £30 a panel I've had an 8 degree increase today . And that's just lovely to sit it on such a hot day. New pump now fitted 4000l/hour. This seems to be enough to give a gentle flow through 4 panels. 10/7/22 pool temp rose from 33 to 40 in 7 hours. Outside temp was 27 with uninterrupted sunshine. I do find that air builds up in the panels and needs about 4 mins of mains hosepipe water pressure to blast it through, then I swap to the 4000l pump. I've since added a 110ah leisure battery , 300w inverter and a 60w solar panel so it's now off grid. Seems to cope with the 90watt pump.

I wasnt expecting this to work that well, especially for the price, but I was pleasantly surprised how warm the water was coming back into the pool...however what I will say is depending on the size of your pool you may need a couple or even a few.