Mum praised for sharing £2 hack to heat up paddling pool by up to 14 degrees
A mum has been blowing people’s minds online after sharing a tip for making paddling pools significantly warmer in the summer.
What’s more, it only costs about two quid to do.
Of course, having a cool dip is just about the perfect thing in this hot weather we’ve been having here in the UK, but it’s perhaps not ideal for the little ones.
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While they will definitely want to get a bit wet and cool down themselves, they’re unlikely to want to do it in the cold water that has just come out of the garden hose.
Fear not, though.
A mum on Facebook has her own plan for heating the paddling pool up, and while it’s not the most environmentally friendly sounding idea in the world, she claims that it works a treat.
It requires just one simple ingredient - bubble wrap.
Well, you need the paddling pool as well - obviously - but we’re not going to count that.
Mum Libbie shared the tip in the Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK Facebook group, explaining: "Summer is pretty much here!
"Here’s a great hack to warm up your swimming pools - BUBBLE WRAP.
"You can actually buy the solar ones, used for pools however I wanted something cheap and made my own.
"Home Bargains sell a massive roll of bubble wrap for £2.49."
Sharing a few pics of the bubble wrap sitting atop the water in her paddling pool, she wrote: "It works so well.
"I checked the temperature on the surface of the water and it was 25C and the bottom of the pool was 19C - much more better than 11C without it."
Yeah, if that works, then it’s a vast improvement in temperature.
In the comments, people sounded off about their own methods.
One said: "I have a cheap bubble wrap cover, it is meant for a pool, my pool today was 30 degrees, that’s with just a cover and solar heat mats.
"The bubble covers really work, stops the water evaporating and stops rubbish landing in it, you can keep the water all year with good maintenance."
Another person said: "I have a solar one paid a tenner last year and pool has been lovely and warm the last couple of days."
A third commented: "That's cool, we bought the proper cover which looks like bubble wrap last year and it didn't work may have to try normal bubble wrap.”
It may have other unintended good consequences, too.
"Will help keep those little gnats and bugs out of there too,” one person said.
I’ll thank you not to talk about my children like that, if you wouldn’t mind.
Tom Wood