Intex 8ft Easy Set Pool Cover Review: The £6 Cover With Holes On Purpose
Half of buyers love it, a third hate it, and almost all of them are arguing about the same two things: the drainage holes nobody saw in the photos, and a cover that often won't stretch over the pool Amazon bundled it with.
If you've just clicked the £6.48 Intex 8-Ft Easy Set Pool Cover into the same basket as an 8ft Intex paddling pool, there are two things the listing photos don't tell you, and both of them show up in the reviews on repeat.
The first is that the cover has holes in the top. Not damage, not faulty stock, deliberate drainage holes punched in at the factory so rainwater doesn't pool on the surface. The second is that the cover isn't always the size it claims to be, and several UK buyers have measured it at closer to 7ft 1 than 8ft. Combine the two and you get a product that lives in the strangest place on Amazon: 50% five-star, 33% one-star, almost nothing in the middle.
So which camp will you fall into? That depends less on luck than the reviews suggest. After reading every recent review (and there are 37,818 of them in total, with a lifetime 4.4-star average), there's a fairly clear pattern for who walks away happy and who returns it. Here's what's actually going on with this cover, and whether £6.48 is the bargain it looks like.
The Hole Story (Why The Cover Looks Punctured)
This complaint comes up more than any other, so let's clear it first. The Intex Easy Set Pool Cover ships with a grid of small drainage holes across the top surface. They are intentional. Their job is to let rainwater pass through into the pool rather than collecting on top in a sagging puddle that eventually rips the seams or pulls the cover off the rim.
The problem is that none of the Amazon listing photos show the holes. Open the box, see the dotted pattern, and your first reaction is reasonably going to be "this is faulty". One buyer summed it up neatly: "Images do not show that it is covered in holes, pretty pointless! I get maybe 1 hole to drain rain water but bugs etc still get in!"
If your only goal is keeping leaves, twigs and the occasional rogue tennis ball out of the water, the holes are fine. They are small enough that a sycamore leaf isn't getting through. If your goal is keeping mosquitoes, midges, dust, pollen or anything fly-sized out, this cover will not do it. Several UK buyers reported pools full of mosquito larvae, bee corpses and ladybirds the morning after fitting the cover. One went as far as sticking bubble wrap on the inside to plug the holes (which also added thermal insulation, and is actually a clever workaround).
Verdict on the holes: the design choice is defensible, the listing photos are misleading. Both things are true.
The Sizing Trap That Catches Amazon Bundle Buyers
The single most expensive mistake people make with this cover is buying it as part of Amazon's "frequently bought together" bundle with an 8ft Intex Easy Set pool. The expectation is reasonable: same brand, same advertised size, same listing. The reality, repeated across dozens of one-star reviews, is that the cover often will not stretch over the pool it was sold alongside.
Some sample voices from recent buyers:
- "Far too small for an 8ft Intex paddling pool, impossible to put on, waste of money, we had to buy the 10ft cover for the 8ft pool, pool and cover are the same make, it's ridiculous"
- "Beware it's not 8ft, it's actually 7ft 3 so wouldn't fit my pool as it was too small."
- "It's not 8ft it's 7:1 stupid advert is very misleading now have to return and reorder the correct size."
- "This did not fit my 8ft pool although advertised as 'bought together'! It was almost impossible to get on and when we did manage to get it on it split and is totally unusable"
And then, oddly, the opposite problem from buyers with 10ft pools: "Bought this for my best way fast set 10ft circular pool and it's perfect." A 5-star buyer with a 10ft Bestway pool: "This fitted my Bestway pool perfectly. Quality is good and there are holes in the top of it."
So the working theory from the review pool is: the cover is closer to 7ft to 7ft 6 inches across, with a 30cm overlap skirt. That makes it too tight for an 8ft Intex pool's true outer diameter (which includes the inflatable top ring), and a snug-but-workable fit for slightly smaller 8ft pools or for the body of a 10ft pool where you're tying it under the ring rather than stretching it over.
If you have an actual 8ft Intex Easy Set with the inflatable ring, expect a fight, and don't be surprised if you tear the seam pulling it on.
Quality Control: The 50/33 Split Isn't Random
Of the last 100 verified reviews, exactly 50 are five stars and 33 are one star. That kind of distribution doesn't happen with a consistent product. It happens when batches vary, or when there's a systematic mismatch between what's promised and what's delivered.
Both seem to be true here.
On the quality side, multiple buyers reported the cover splitting on first use, or the seam containing the drawstring tearing as soon as they tightened it. "Poor quality, seam containing string to tighten ripped on first use" and "Split down the seam on second days use" are not isolated comments. One buyer also flagged that the drawstring on their unit didn't have the buckle clip shown in the listing.
On the satisfaction side, a happy 5-star buyer with the 8ft size wrote: "Really impressed with this pool cover! It came well packaged and was super easy to fit over our 8-foot pool. The fit is nice and snug, so it stays secure even on windy days, no fussing around. For the price, it's a total win." Another with a 3-metre (roughly 10ft) inflatable pool: "Does the job as advertised. Perfect fit for the 3m inflatable pool."
The pattern: if your unit arrives intact and your pool is on the smaller end of its category, you're in the 50%. If your unit arrives with a weak seam or your pool measures right at the upper end of the 8ft spec, you're in the 33%. There is very little middle.
What It Actually Does Well (When It Fits)
Set aside the sizing and hole drama for a moment. When this cover fits your pool, here is what the happy reviewers consistently say:
- It keeps leaves and large debris out. A 5-star buyer with a 10ft pool: "Used this for the past 4 days on our 10ft pool and it works great." Another: "keeps leaves out and other rubbish, fits well I don't have any problems".
- It stays put in UK wind. The drawstring and skirt do their job once tightened. "Stays on on windy days too". "Holds down in the wind".
- It can warm the water slightly. Multiple buyers mention the pool warming up overnight under the cover. One found this excessive: "raised the temperature of the pool to 29 degrees after one day in the sun which is too warm". For most UK summer days, that's a feature.
- It packs away small. No reviewer complained about storage bulk, and several called it easy to take on and off (with a second pair of hands for the 3m size).
For a £6.48 plastic sheet with a drawstring, that's a reasonable amount of utility. The case for the cover is strongest when you treat it as a daily-use leaf-and-debris guard for a pool you're using through July and August, not as a winter cover or a mosquito-proof barrier.
Buying Tips Before You Click Add To Basket
Based on what the review pool is telling us, here's how to maximise your chance of being in the 50%:
- Measure your pool's outer diameter, including the inflatable ring fully inflated. If you're at 8ft or over, size up to the 10ft cover (sold separately) rather than this one. Multiple 1-star reviewers ended up buying the 10ft anyway after this one didn't fit.
- Don't trust the Amazon "bought together" bundle. The bundle algorithm pairs this 8ft cover with the 8ft Intex Easy Set pool, but the cover's real-world stretch doesn't always make it across the ring. Treat the bundle as a suggestion, not a guarantee.
- Know what the holes do. If you specifically need to keep insects out (which is most of us in a UK summer), this is the wrong cover. Look at a solid, non-drainage-hole cover and accept that you'll need to drain rainwater off it manually after every shower.
- Be gentle with the drawstring. Tighten it slowly. Tearing the seam at the drawstring exit is the single most common quality failure, and you can avoid most of it by not yanking.
- Consider it disposable. At £6.48 it is, frankly, a one-season cover for most UK gardens. The 5-star reviewers who got two summers out of it are the exception, not the rule.
At £6.48 it's still cheap enough that gambling on it isn't unreasonable, as long as you've done the measuring first.
The Verdict
This is a £6.48 cover that does roughly £6.48 of work. The 4.4-star lifetime average flatters it; the recent 100 reviews tell a different story with a 3.29 average, driven by a polarised split between buyers whose pool matched the cover and buyers who got caught by the sizing-and-bundle trap.
If you have a slightly smaller 8ft pool, or you're putting it on a 10ft pool and tying it underneath the ring rather than over it, you'll probably be in the camp that calls this excellent value. If you have a true 8ft Intex Easy Set with the inflatable ring, save yourself the return postage and get the 10ft Intex cover instead.
Rated for what it is, not what the listing photos suggest it is, the Intex 8-Ft Easy Set Pool Cover earns about 3.5 stars from me: cheap, broadly fit for the leaf-catching job most UK buyers actually need, but let down by misleading photos that don't show the drainage holes and a sizing label that doesn't always match a 30cm tape measure.
Intex 8-Ft Easy Set Pool Cover, Blue (128020)
A low-cost drainage-hole cover for smaller paddling pools. Best for 7ft to 7ft 6 inch pools where the cover can stretch comfortably over the rim.