I have a question about blowing out the skimmers from the pump drain using an air compressor. How do you get all of the water out when there is a 6" or so height difference between the bottom of the skimmer and the skimmer weir when its laying flat? Also, do I blow both skimmers out at once or one at a time using a plug? Unfortunatley, I never saw the pool being closed the first two years so I don't know what is typically done.

I used to get as much out as possible and then pour a couple of gallons of alchohol in there to stop the water (if there is any) from freezing.

Just let the water in the skimmer bubble for 30 seconds or so, then screw in a gizmo. Don't worry about water freezing in there. The gizmo is there for the ice to expand against and keeps the shimmer body from cracking. Water in my skimmer freezes pretty solid. If I want, wedge a piece of styrofoam in there as well.

My first winter with a new pool so I think I may have been overly cautious but heres what I did with my concrete walled IG pool:

1. Drained pool to 2" below each skimmer housing
2. Used shop vac attachment and inserted into each skimmer return line and blew out each line individually and then from the equipment pad return lines to the skimmers
3. Teflon taped Gizmo bottoms and screwed into skimmer housing
4. Cut up 3 old noodles and inserted them into each skimmer housing
5. Filled each skimmer return line with 2 gallons of RV antifreeze each as I have about a 20-30 ft run for each line back to the equipment pad

Went through so much this year having this pool installed and just want to protect my investment!