You have likely seen the infomercial.

It is called Flex Tape. Not only waterproof, it sticks to anything.

The instructions tell you not to try to remove it. You won’t be able to.

The infomercial shows the tape being slapped on, and successfully sealing, a leaky pipe, a hole in a bucket full of water, and a divided motorboat, which had been sawed lengthwise.

I love my tapes.

They sit in one of the bigger plastic boxes in my computer room.  Each tape has its special use.

Only Flex Tape, however, has worked wonders in my pool area.

Some months ago, I used Flex Tape to make my pool deeper. I admit that I had not set the ground level when I laid my above-ground pool down.

So one end of the pool was deeper than the other.

I placed raised struts at a corner of the pool and covered the struts with pieces of 8-inch-wide Flex Tape to create a higher wall.

That did the trick.

Now the pool water does not splash out at that corner, the pool holds more water, and I don’t have to fill the pool as often due to evaporation.

My current pool project is aimed at insulating my covered pool.

The theory is, if the pool is insulated, it will not require as much heat to warm it up prior to my daily morning swims.

I used Flex Tape to seal the greenhouse plastic around the outside of my pool.  And I placed Flex Tape around the corners of velcro patches used to seal the opening flaps to the pool.

I am now working on plans to use air to further insulate the pool.  The technique is called double layer greenhouse.

The idea is, if there are two layers of greenhouse plastic over a structure (like a greenhouse or a pool), and those layers are separated by a layer of air, the air will serve as insulation, with up to an amazing R4 insulation.

I already have one layer of greenhouse plastic over the pool. The second layer will be sealed around the pool with Flex Tape.

An electric fan, hooked to a duct, will constantly blow air between the two layers of plastic. I imagine the pool will look something like an inflated balloon. The fan consumes as much electricity as a light bulb.

The proof of this experiment will be in the pudding.  Presently, with only one sealed plastic covering, it takes 90 minutes to heat up the pool each morning.  My hypothesis is that once the double layer insulation is set up, it will take half that time to heat the pool for my swim.

Total cost for the extra layer of plastic and the pump will be $180.  I expect to save the same amount this winter and spring in heating costs.

What else would I like to do with the Flex Tape?

Besides having tape available to fix leaks in my pool or piping, I would one day like to use the tape to create an outdoor combination aquarium-terrarium for fish, snakes, frogs, lizards, and turtles.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertzebsen51@gmail.com