Closing (or not) in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon)

[GregOP]

This is my first season with my in-ground pool. I'm considering whether or not to close the pool. I'm fairly confident that I'm prepared to close it properly after reading a bunch of material and asking some questions on here. Water temp is about 73 right now, but as soon as we get into the rainy season in the next few weeks, it'll drop to 60 fast I'm guessing. So my question is, for anyone with experience with pools in this area, do you close your pools? Why\Why not?

It will obviously be a lot less maintenance if I just close it down. So that's nice. However, I've got an attached spa with spillover that would be kind of nice to use in the winter. My pool is not surrounded by a bunch of trees so debris is of minimal concern. My pool equipment room is enclosed with walls and has a heater. I'm in the 'valley' in Oregon and it rarely drops below 32 here. When it does, it rarely stays that way for long. A typical winter day is mid 40's for the high, mid 40s' for the low (or upper 30's at worst). Ocean, valley, and cloud cover causes the temperature swings to be minimal. I assume that since the water temp would be below 60 I would be able to reduce my daily chlorine consumption quite a bit (from about 1/2 gallon a day to perhaps 1/4 to 1/8 a day).

 

[borjis]

I'm near Portland. I've had 2 different houses with inground pools. Last one was plaster, this one is vinyl.

I like to keep them open year round. Just to look at heheh.

In those once yearly instances when we get snow and icy conditions, I put a milk jug 1/3 filled with rocks (to keep it down) in
the skimmer to avoid any possible freeze damage cracks. But I have not drained the sand filter or pump basket. My equipment
is stored like yours in a side shed attached to the house.

During swim season I typically go through 1 gallon of bleach per week. In the winter when the water is below 60, I might use
1 gallon in a month at most. I only run the pump on saturday for a few hours while the suction robot cleans the floor in winter.

When the pool froze solid and it snowed in late Dec last winter, the skimmer had some very thin ice in it, but never froze solid.

 

[GregOP]

Great, thanks. When you say your pool froze solid in late december, do you mean just the top layer or did it freeze all the way down to the bottom?

Seems like at least I'm not crazy to consider leaving it open.

 

[borjis]

Just the top...about 1/2 an inch thick, but in the skimmer it was just a little bit slushy is all.
Probably from wind chill factor.

 

[tko]

Just the top...about 1/2 an inch thick, but in the skimmer it was just a little bit slushy is all.
Probably from wind chill factor.

Thanks to you both for the info. I'm in Portland, OR - last year was our first winter with our new (very old) pool. It is an inground gunite pool. We don't have a heater, and our equipment is enclosed in a pool house. The person who closed it for us last year said to keep the chlorine low(ish), drained/disconnected, put on pool cover. We opened to a green pool which I had to SLAM but cleared in about 5 days.

Contemplating whether to close it ourselves, or just leave it. I am concerned about not putting on a cover because it can get slippery on the cement, and I don't want one of us, or the dog, to fall into frigid water. One of the pool guys is suggesting that we run the pump 24x7 but I'm not keen on using that much electricity. Can I treat the water, put on the safety cover, and still run it just on saturdays for a few hours?

Greg, what did you decide on last year and how did it do in the weeks of snow that we had?