3 day deep freeze, how to protect the pool

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Believe it or not, but Houston is freezing over for 5 straight days with a temp as low as 10 on Monday.

27000 gls. T-15 Cell with Omnilogic. I do not have freeze protection. Variable speed pump. Current pool temp is 49 degrees and outside temp is 34.

Issue is I'm already getting low temp alarm. I have a heater, and turned it on for 5 minutes and the alarm went away. I read above where I should not run the heater because they do not do well in cold temp.

This may sound ignorant, but should I wrap my t-cell with insulation? I have had to replace my cell 3 times and pool is only 5 years old. I'm a little hyper-sensitive in protecting them now. I plan on running my pump 24/7, at 50% to keep water flowing through pipes?
 
I am looking for input on the lesser of two evils.

We are also about to get hit by a deep freeze in NE Oklahoma.

We have an in-floor cleaning system so there is no water movement on the surface to prevent it from freezing. All my pumps and valves are covered fine, but there isn't much I can do if the ice on top gets any thicker.

If I run the heater I would expect some corrosion (I have seen it before in a buddies pool), but if I don't run the heater I am afraid the outcome will be worse (frozen pipes, frozen gearbox, and a pump that can't fully prime off the skimmer).

Any thoughts?
 
OSUFly said:
We have an in-floor cleaning system so there is no water movement on the surface to prevent it from freezing. All my pumps and valves are covered fine, but there isn't much I can do if the ice on top gets any thicker.
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Do you already have ice and want to prevent more ice or are you just trying to prevent ice from forming in the first place? There are plenty of other instances where products are used to prevent ice from forming of bodies of water. There are duck hunting decoys that vibrate or make ripples, products for ponds that are just heaters that float or vibrate to prevent ice. If your desperate, you can research some of those things. My family is big into duck hunting are we use decoys that splash and vibrate to keep the ice from forming in front of the duck blinds. These things may not work in your hard freezing temps, I only have experience with them on cold NC mornings in the 20s.
 
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NCMike said:
Do you already have ice and want to prevent more ice or are you just trying to prevent ice from forming in the first place? There are plenty of other instances where products are used to prevent ice from forming of bodies of water. There are duck hunting decoys that vibrate or make ripples, products for ponds that are just heaters that float or vibrate to prevent ice. If your desperate, you can research some of those things. My family is big into duck hunting are we use decoys that splash and vibrate to keep the ice from forming in front of the duck blinds. These things may not work in your hard freezing temps, I only have experience with them on cold NC mornings in the 20s.
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I am trying to prevent ice from forming because if it gets thick enough on the shelf then the popups there will lock up and freeze. As well as the skimmer. I think the issue is in the design, there is no surface movement of water with these in-floor systems.

I am actually an avid duck hunter and I already put my bilge pump decoys (Higdon pulsators) in there but they froze up pretty quickly. I also have an ice eater which I have been running on and off but its hard to keep the batteries charged up.

Awesome seeing another duck hunter out there though (especially someone who thinks alike)!
 
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OSUFly said:
I am trying to prevent ice from forming because if it gets thick enough on the shelf then the popups there will lock up and freeze. As well as the skimmer. I think the issue is in the design, there is no surface movement of water with these in-floor systems.

I am actually an avid duck hunter and I already put my bilge pump decoys (Higdon pulsators) in there but they froze up pretty quickly. I also have an ice eater which I have been running on and off but its hard to keep the batteries charged up.

Awesome seeing another duck hunter out there though (especially someone who thinks alike)!
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Looks like your doing all you can do. We don't deal with thick ice here so the mojo vibrators we have usually do the trick. I did a little googling, if you only need to keep a certain spot cleared of ice above your popups would these work?
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...er-premium-cast-aluminum-floating-pond-deicer
Maybe a farm supply store near you has them in stock. My local tractor supply does. Maybe float it above your pop ups on the shelf and keep it in place with some decoy weights.
 
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I am running my water shears here in texas right now 24/7. Is that ok during the five days of possible freeze? All the comments on keep water flowing have me doing this.

The pool has freeze control but the pump is separate for these features.

Thanks for any thoughts.
 
OSUFly said:
I am looking for input on the lesser of two evils.

We are also about to get hit by a deep freeze in NE Oklahoma.

We have an in-floor cleaning system so there is no water movement on the surface to prevent it from freezing. All my pumps and valves are covered fine, but there isn't much I can do if the ice on top gets any thicker.

If I run the heater I would expect some corrosion (I have seen it before in a buddies pool), but if I don't run the heater I am afraid the outcome will be worse (frozen pipes, frozen gearbox, and a pump that can't fully prime off the skimmer).

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
A local pool technician in Tulsa suggested a livestock tank heater to hang in front of our skimmer to prevent ice. We are running water features and they seem to be keeping the surface ice free for now but the tank heater would be an option...unless we lose power.
 
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I'm in dallas. I goofed and forgot the run my pump 24/7. This morning had a sheet of ice on the pool and the pump was frozen.

I was able to defrost the pump with warm water. But i think the pipes leading to the return are frozen. I ended up draining the pump and the filter and did my best to lower the water line.

My mother in laws friend is In the same situation and called their pool company out. They basically did the same things I did and told them not much else can be done at this point.

Now I'm just hoping there is no serious damage done and when everything thaws it'll run like normal again. Sigh.
 
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ernest787 said:
I'm in dallas. I goofed and forgot the run my pump 24/7. This morning had a sheet of ice on the pool and the pump was frozen.

I was able to defrost the pump with warm water. But i think the pipes leading to the return are frozen. I ended up draining the pump and the filter and did my best to lower the water line.

My mother in laws friend is In the same situation and called their pool company out. They basically did the same things I did and told them not much else can be done at this point.

Now I'm just hoping there is no serious damage done and when everything thaws it'll run like normal again. Sigh.
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I know for sure one of my lines is frozen...so same...hoping in week or so when someone can review the damage...it’s minimal.
 
So.... I have been running the pumps 24/7 for days but today the pool is starting to get thick slush on top and it's clogging the skimmers, causing the pump to act funny and not run the return lines... I clear it out and it's fine, but the slush is getting worse.... Is it time for me to shut everything down and drain the pumps??
 

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ejs873 said:
So.... I have been running the pumps 24/7 for days but today the pool is starting to get thick slush on top and it's clogging the skimmers, causing the pump to act funny and not run the return lines... I clear it out and it's fine, but the slush is getting worse.... Is it time for me to shut everything down and drain the pumps??
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Yes, unless increasing the pool RPM can keep the water moving. What speed are you running the pump?
 
ejs873 said:
It's running at 3000 rpm.. everything has been ok until this afternoon with the slush... Should I pump some water out also? Below the skimmers line?
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If you are shutting down the pool then you should drain it below the tile line if you can. Pool water freezing along the tiles can pop them off.
 
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ajw22 said:
f you are shutting down the pool then you should drain it below the tile line if you can. Pool water freezing along the tiles can pop them off.
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What if it is still running but freezing along the tiles?

I have heating elements in front of the skimmers to prevent those from freezing, but the rest of the pool is starting to freeze over.

--Jeff
 
Turbo1Ton said:
What if it is still running but freezing along the tiles?

I have heating elements in front of the skimmers to prevent those from freezing, but the rest of the pool is starting to freeze over.

--Jeff
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Shut it down and drain it or hope for the best.

If you have cracked grout lines and water gets behind tiles the ice will expand as it freezes and loosen or pop off tiles.
 
well shoot.. we had a rolling power outage for about 30-45 minutes around 3am and the pump refuses to prime after power is back on.. it'll try and either complain that it's dry or will timeout.. I've been hand stirring the surface to keep slush away.. skimmers aren't frozen and the water in the pump isn't either.. any ideas?
 
I had this problem earlier last week when my freeze protection wasn't activated on my spa, and the spa suction line began to freeze. Pool suctions were fine because they had been operating. When I turned on the freeze protection for the spa, as soon as the system toggled over to the spa mode, the pump would lose prime. I had to thaw the suction line with a heat gun for about 30-45 minutes and that got it going again.

Good luck.

--Jeff
 

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