in ground pool closing: blowing line vs antifreeze

[budalb]

I am a new pool owner, who just managed to operate the IG vinyl pool for a little over one month. Now I have to close the pool for a one-month long vacation trip. Being in southern New England, I am trying to winterize my pool before leaving. As discussed many times in TFP forums, I know northern pool owners need to blow the lines. Here is what the previous owner did and showed to me. He never drain or blow the lines, but put antifreeze.

He poured antifreeze into the skimmer, then ran the pump until red color showed up in the returns. Then he stopped the pump and plugged the returns. It ended up with no problem in the past cold winter. He used 3 gallon of antifreeze. He said he always winterized the pool his way. The pool was built >20 years ago. This looks a lot easier than blowing the lines.

Any problems with winterizing IG pool this way?


Thanks a lot!

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

We recommend blowing the line and then adding anti-freeze, but other approaches can work. Adding anti-freeze without blowing out the lines means using more anti-freeze and it also removes a layer of protection, but it can work as long as nothing goes wrong. I prefer having layers of defense against freezing, so that even if something goes wrong with one approach another one will still protect the pool.

 

[budalb]

If I blow the lines and plug the returns, how do I add antifreeze?

It looks like I will have to blow the lines after I come back. Thanks a lot!