Bestway solar pool cover review

The naming problem, first, because it costs people a return

Bestway’s Flowclear solar covers are named with a size that is deliberately smaller than the pool they fit. The 58252 is sold as a 14-foot cover, and its compatibility list includes 15-foot Fast Set pools, 14-foot Power Steel and Steel Pro MAX pools, and 13-foot Steel Pro and Power Steel pools.

That is not an error and it is not a cheat. A solar cover on a soft-sided pool has to float inside the wall, on the water, not stretch over the rim the way a winter cover does. A cover cut to the nominal pool diameter would ride up the wall and buckle. So the sheet is cut undersize on purpose, and the number in the product name describes the sheet rather than the pool.

What is published

Reading the current listings on 6 September 2026, Bestway’s Flowclear covers are polyethylene bubble film, sold across the round sizes that match its own pool range, with 18-foot round versions among the larger options. The listings describe the cover as creating a greenhouse effect and as keeping water and heat in and debris out, and note that it slows the evaporation caused by dry winds and the free-chlorine loss caused by UV.

There is no published mil rating, which puts it in exactly the same position as the Intex equivalent and, frankly, most of this category. There is no specification sheet we could retrieve. What is published is a fit list, and for this product the fit list is the specification that matters.

The chlorine point is real and usually skipped

Buried in Bestway’s own listing language is a claim worth pulling out, because it is the most under-discussed benefit of covering a pool: UV destroys free chlorine. A cover shading the water slows that, which is why the Department of Energy’s cover figures include a 35 to 60% reduction in chemical consumption alongside the heating saving.

On a small above-ground pool the chemical saving can be a larger share of the running cost than the heat is, because there is not much water to heat in the first place. It does not usually make the buying decision by itself, but it belongs in the arithmetic and it is almost always left out.

How it compares with the Intex equivalent

There is no meaningful case for buying one over the other on performance, and nothing published would support such a case if you wanted to make it. Buy the one cut for the pool you own. The Intex review is here.

When to skip both and buy a pool-brand cover

The own-brand covers are thin. If you have a large Power Steel or Steel Pro MAX pool — the ones that are effectively small inground pools in a steel frame — the calculation shifts, because at that volume you are fighting a real heat-loss number and you will want the cover for more than two seasons.

At that point buy an oversized rectangular or round pool-brand cover and cut it down. It is more work once and cheaper per year after that, and cutting a cover down is genuinely straightforward — scissors, and cut it a little inside the water line rather than outside it.

What we could not assess

The thickness, since none is published. How one full hot season treats the film. And whether the fit list is conservative or optimistic at its edges — a cover that fits three different nominal diameters across three pool families is fitting at least one of them less well than the others, and nothing published says which.

What we would say plainly: this is a fine product being sold under a confusing name, and almost every complaint you will read about it is a sizing complaint rather than a quality one. Read the fit list and most of the risk goes away.