Central Texas winter

[loweran]

What do all you Central Texans do to your pool over winter? I am in the Austin area, and seems all my neighbors just keep things the way they are in the summer. I have noticed a dramatic reduction in chlorine consumption, and have dialed back the pump times a bit.

Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[texasdad]

Run it a few hours a day and keep chlorine in it just like over the summer. It should take much less chlorine to hold the same levels.
Your equipment should have have a freeze sensor to turn the pumps on when it is freezing out - it won't get cold enough in Tx to make flowing water freeze.

 

[loweran]

So, how much can I back off the pump? I have a Stenner pump for liquid chlorine and it is run off the easytouch. Currently I am running it about 20 min a day so the pump is really not required to run much to get chlorine into the pool.

 

[duraleigh]

So, how much can I back off the pump?

The answer is, "As much as you want to". Simply run your pool pump as long as it takes to keep the water reasonably clean.

I started with a run time of about 10 hours daily as summer faded and am now down to only 3.5 hours daily. I also run the robot every other day because I get a lot of debris that sinks so the robot is helping keep the water clean somewhat.

So, pick a run time that makes sense to you and see how your pool behaves. If it stays sparkling clear, you may decide to cut it back some more.

 

[woodyp]

Down to 4 hours a day in East Texas and could go less I'm sure.

 

[257WbyMag]

Run your pump as much as you need to to skim, mix chems, etc. There is no set amount of time as it is different for all pools.

 

[brock.travis]

I live in the Dallas area. I make mine run from 12am - 4am. I have built in freeze protection that kicks on at 34 degrees. I figured I dont want the pool to run during the day and then run again at night when/if the freeze protection kicks in. The water seems too cold to eat through tabs very quickly. But then again, you dont really need as much for the same reason.

 

[RobbieH]

I'm also running mine from 12-4. I manually keep an eye on it when things get really cold, but even in that brutally cold winter we had last year I had no issues. My pool equipment is enclosed though, that cetainly helped.