Solar Roller ® CoverStick

Prospectus & Product Overview

Brand Description

Solar Roller ® CoverStick™ for rolling pool covers

Rolls Odd-Shaped Pools in Sections like Pieces of a Puzzle!

Short Description

• Just 200 POOLS using covers SAVES 3.5 Million Gallons of WATER!
• SAVES MONEY on LOWER WATER BILLS
• PATENTED Roller For Pools THAT CAN'T USE A DECK REEL
• FREE-FLOATING, rolls HALF POOL COVERS For Any Shape Pool
• COMPACT and FAST, Includes OVER 42ft of TUBE!
• ADJUSTABLE lengths, ONE SIZE FITS ALL up to 20x40ft
• HIDDEN System is NOT AN OBSTRUCTION on Your Deck

Target User/Customer

Swimming pool owners that want to save money on their water bills.

Product Pricing

MSRP $199.95

Product Stage

Branding, Packaging, Manufacturing, Sales & Marketing.

Products Currently in Inventory

3300 Units.

The Challenge

To overcome the limitations of "full covers" on pools that can't use a deck reel.

To meet this challenge we have invented a system for splitting the full cover to overcome shapes like pieces of a puzzle, and manufacture a simple inexpensive free-floating tubular device that spans each cover section. Using the buoyancy of the already floating cover for support, the lightweight tubes integrate directly with the cover, do not extend beyond the cover so are hidden, and need no deck to sit on.

By enabling pools that previously could not use a deck reel to use a cover, we are meeting the demand to help communities save water, and home owners LOWER THEIR WATER BILLS. Plus, many communities already require a cover with a new pool, and that trend is growing in the wake of water shortages. So more and more people need a way to handle their covers.

Competitors

• feherguard.com
• glipoolproducts.com
• solarsunrings.com

Why This Product is Better

Deck reels (referring to competitors one and two above) are expensive and are difficult to get the cover to roll up straight (like re-rolling paper towels or worse yet, the TP). They also require a deck to sit on. None of the competitors making deck reels can handle odd-shape pools which are around 70% of pools and is an untapped market.

The third competitor referenced above (Solar Sun Rings) is different than a deck reel, but these 1.5 meter round inflatable ring pads blow around the pool, are slow to fish out of the pool and put back on, must stack on the deck like pancakes, and according to some retailers have had an inflation failure rate holding air. According to dealers consumers buy a set of them for $350-$450, try them out, and then many return them. For this reason some dealers have grown weary of selling them.

Our product rolls in 10-15 seconds a side, does NOT slow down the pool service tech (who traditionally dislikes covers for that reason), is lightweight and easy to handle, works on any pool (inground, aboveground, and soft inflatables because it becomes part of the cover not the pool), is one-size-fits-all (so is a single SKU), is easy to stock (case of six weighs under 50lbs and measures 45x10x8 inches), and is the most affordable solution on the market!

For distribution, if you read our White Paper the half pool cover system will revolutionize the stocking of covers because half covers can be produced in just "fours sizes" rather than the +50 sizes of full covers. Reducing this mess to just four sizes means retailers can actually have stock on hand to support the surge in the demand for pool covers.

Take note we have sold over 900 units through our website with a low rate of returned units, so the product is market proven and ready for the national and global markets.

What's Driving the Market and Demand

THE GREEN CONSERVATION MARKET IS ON THE RISE!

One of the NEXT BIG Market BOOMS is in Water Conservation. The "2008 Energy Bill" requires metros to bill in ways that promotes water conservation. This means TIERED BILLING RATES, and will drive the solar cover market expansion to help pool owner's LOWER THEIR WATER BILLS. See: WCCO.com about water rates.

The increased demand for covers means a demand for devices to handle them.

POOL COVERS SAVE WATER and LOWER YOUR WATER BILLS!

In addition to cutting chemical usage (and costs) in half, it is well known that an inexpensive solar cover can pay for itself in lower water bills because just 200 pools using covers can save 3.5 million gallons of water every year (that's an entire city water tank). Until recently in many areas water has been cheap, and only pools that can use a deck reel are able to handle a cover, so most pools won't use a bulky hard to handle cover even if the pool builder throws one in for free. However, with more and more communities going to water meters, the demand to save water will be increasing soon.

Google Insights for "Solar Cover" Searches

What's Innovative About the Product

HOW IT WORKS!

Our Split-Cover SystemT reduces the work of owning a cover and adapts to any shape pool because it's a half cover solution for rolling covers on free-form pools that can't use a deck reel. The rolling device for handling each half-cover is NOT a Reel, it's a COVER STICK™, and it does the trick on those difficult free-form shapes because it rolls covers directly on the water, and it's completely hidden so there's Nothing On Your Deck.

Many free-form pool owners already split their covers (at the advice of pool shops) to make them easier to handle by hand and overcome odd-shapes up to L-Shape pools. We have just taken this a step further by attaching a Cover Stick T rolling device midway through each half-cover to roll the cover right on the water, in seconds, no deck required. Rolls quick and easy the same way every time, never bunching up or winding off the roller which can happen with deck reels. Once installed the free floating Solar Roller ® CoverStick™ actually becomes part of the cover and is always ready to roll by quickly popping on the detachable handles.

Sustainable Elements of the Product

• Water Conservation to help many regional water shortages.
• Lower Water and Chemical Costs to Pool Owners.
• Lower Business Overhead for struggling Pool Services (chemical costs have risen 30% in the last year alone, is direct overhead for pool service companies, so saving chemicals through use solar pool covers is money directly in their pockets).

Third Party Claims of Sustainability

Southern Nevada Water Authority (see the SNWA website for coupons) is saving water due to Nevada's severe water shortage by providing $50 pool cover rebates. SNWA gave away almost 4000 pool covers rebates last year in the Las Vegas area and establishes a PROVEN MARKET.

Also, city of Roseville CA announces $50 Pool Cover Rebates!

Impact of the Product on the Environment

Tremendous water conservation and chemical usage reduction. Just 200 pools using covers can save 3.5 million gallons of water every year. Based on more than 8 million pools in the US, we estimate on a national scale covers can save more than 50 billion gallons of precious water annually.

Water savings via the use of inexpensive buoyant pool covers is easy to calculate given the evaporation rates in inches published by the National Weather Bureau at the ASU website. Using an average evaporation rate of 60 inches and an average inground pool size of 17,500 gallons, it takes only 200 pools to waste an entire 3.5 million gallon tank of city water. If Sacramento has over 50,000 pools then Sacramento alone wastes 250 tanks (or over 2 billion gallons) of city water every year while at the same time many communities are on stage 3 water rationing. We feel this is not equitable to non-pool owners and the trend will be for districts to mandate use of covers driven by non-pool owner pressure.

If the US has more than 8 million swimming pools, and we lower the average pool to 10,000 gallons to account for aboveground pools, then nationally 10,000 gal x 8,000,000 pools = 80 BILLION Gallons of water annually is being wasted nationwide.

Aside from the water conservation issue, there is a cost of energy used to process and create that amount of drinking water and on a global scale one doesn't have to ask if this is an issue that is rife to be addressed with a sense of urgency by all parties involved.

Why the Product is Important

This product will greatly assist water conservation in so many areas already suffering from water shortages. Note that evaporation of pool water is different than toilet flushes because this water cannot be reclaimed. Moreover, as an energy conservation measure the electricity to produce the wasted drinking water that goes into pools is another national savings.

In addition, the more efficient half cover distribution model will greatly enable retailers to stock covers assisting communities to support the cause of water starved areas (such as the Georgia, the Southwest, California, and others) in which some are already water rationing and promoting pool covers through rebates.

More efficient distribution means retailers and wholesalers will never be out of stock utilizing this revolutionary "just in time" stock on hand distribution model. Retail stores will more than ever have an incentive and the ability to stock covers at the store for immediate sale, rather than special order from the warehouse requiring customers to come back for pickup. The warehouse will benefit because they can enjoy the same profit margins, but move stock immediately out to retailers rather than waiting for truckload deliveries to sell off in their space constrained warehouses. And the customer will be able to get what they want, when they want it so that everybody wins in the never ending fight for water conservation.