The cover with a reel solve a few desires on my above grade Intex type pool.
I have a 20foot Bestways soft side steel tube pool. I had a solar cover that was a bit small, left gaps for leaves, junk to fall into the pool. It was also a bit painful to remove and put back on. I considered the J hook ad on to the pool but they had very mixed reviews and I didn't care to drill into any of the metal tubes. I also tear mine down for the winter so working around J hook cover holders seemed would be that much more painful.
I decided to give a Solar pool cover reel a try along with the Solar Cover, I picked up the 22' Vevor Solar cover reel and the 20x40 Solar Cover. I cut the cover into two 20' x 20' sections storing one for the future. For the reel, I skipped intalling the feet and instead mounted the top over EMT piping which fit the roller tubes nicely.
The plan was to raise the reel up 5 feet so it sat 1 foot higher than my soft side 48" pool, and sink the extended legs (EMT pipe) into concrete footings. I changed to mounting the EMT into tires filled with concrete, these were left over from two Tetherball set ups I had. These happened to have the right size EMT which worked great. It allows me to adjust the placement and I can move them completely out of the way if needed, or if I stop setting up the pool.
This works great, I can open and close the pool simply by winding up the cover, and when done just pull it back onto the surface no different than folks using a cover reel for an inground pool.
When closing I simply fold over then leading edge a few feet back as it rides on top of the water and avoids filling water on top of the cover. One person can do this with little effort, works great IMO.
I also now have an extra cover (left over 20x20 pc) waiting for when the current 1/2 wears out. The cover itself seems a bit stiff, maybe aged a bit but I'm not positive, first new cover in 5yrs. Nice thing is it's large enough on a soft side 20' as when centered, the edges come up slightly in the pool and the corners hang over. This keeps debris out of the pool. I've done far less cleaning, pool stays much warmer (3-5 degrees verses cover with gaps and water getting on top) so overall I'm very happy.
attached is a photo, I placed the reel on the "wind side" of the pool to limit wind lift, and use a handful of wood working plastic clamps to keep the corners from lifting. Overall a great set up for me.
Arga 
