Winter cover?

[Swimgirl]

Since I live where almost never gets below the upper 20's and even when it does dip below freezing some nights it gets above freezing fairly quickly once the sun is up, I am not going to fully close the pool. I am just going to run the pump on the cooler nights so the water doesn't freeze in the pump, filter, or hoses. I am concerned, however, about not having the pool covered at all, just because of the dust and plant junk factor. Right now I just have the solar cover on it. I have a couple of questions:

1. Could I just go with the solar cover all winter?
2. If I do get a winter cover, could I put it on without lowering the water level, and would I be able to run my pump with it on?

Thanks!

 

[waste]

Given your winters, I think you're right to not fully close the pool! And your plan sounds like a good one.

Your solar cover will catch most of the debris so it won't settle to the bottom. As you plan to keep the pool 'open' all year, I doubt you need a cover (other than the solar, and probably not even that - but you've already got it). A cover would kind of defeat the purpose of leaving the pool open. Also, with the pool up and running it'd be easy enough to pull the solar on one of the milder days and do a quick vac to get anything that bypassed the solar cover Unless you expect a huge amount of debris to enter the pool, I wouldn't bother with another cover - but if you did get one, you could still run the pump (just be sure that the water doesn't get so low that you starve the skimmer)

I wish you and the pool well over the winter :-D Please don't forget to run the pump when the temps are below freezing! I hope to see you here over the cooler months, but if not, we'll see you in the spring

 

[amjohn]

I am currently running my pool open for the winter, this being our first winter and our first pool- we have similar weather to what you described. Right now, I am just using a leaf net- looks like a giant hair net- to catch leaves. Even then, we have trees with small needle-like leaves that get through the net. I run my autovac for a couple hours each week (and remove it when it is done- I have a Ranger also) to get any dirt and junk that has gotten through the leaf net. The leaf net will come off once the leaves are all down. We may put it back on in the spring, as we tend to have lots of plant stuff come down then too.
I have a basic Intermatic freeze-timer on the pool- it is supposed to turn the pump on when the temps get near freezing (of course it froze before we got it, and then we have had record high temps since we installed it). It also runs the pump during our daily pre-set hours as well. The leaf net floats on top of the water and the pump runs just fine. We have to pull the net out of the way when we use the vacuum, as it tangles the hose, but it is not hard to do.

My general goal is to go without draining/winterizing/covering. We would be constantly battling the high winds and crazy weather here. Plus torrential rains drowning the cover. Plus storing the cover for 7 months of the year (summer), plus they only last so long, plus our winter is only Nov-March. So going without the cover seemed worth a try. If we get a real winter (ice, snow, freezes, etc) then we may rethink this and winterize for real. The companies that I have been ordering supplies from (http://www.amerimerc.com and http://www.intheswim.com) get them to my doorstep in 1-2 days, so if I do decide to cover, the cover will get here before I even get started.

When I was in the process of deciding, I read every post on here about it that I could find. A couple people had tried leaving the solar cover on all winter and ended up with it partially breaking down in the water/ cloudy water. My solar cover seemed to be assisting an algae problem that I was not able to completely defeat until I took it off. The water being around 60 degrees now means that it stays very clear. I just added Polyquat the other day to stop having to add bleach regularly for the winter. If that fails, then I will go back to bleach. With cool water, I only had to add bleach a couple times a week.
So far, I am good with the decision to leave the pool open for the winter. If we do get a real winter and end up winterizing, I would probably lower the water level just enough to keep it out of the skimmer, but would disconnect the hoses and drain the pump and filter to keep them from freezing. We have a little plastic disk that lets us seal of the eyeball return. I might also consider a skimmer-cover- like a tupperware lid for the skimmer- lets you keep your water level up without water getting into the skimmer and freezing and cracking it- several people do that on this forum.

Hopefully someone else can tell you about running the pump with the winter cover.

 

[newnick]

I put a Arctic Armor cover on about a month and a half ago, the kind that water penatrates, and I couldn't be happier. I was cleaning the pool every couple of days because of all the leaves ect. I still run the pump a few hours a day and clean off the cover about once a week. We have leaves fall all winter and I think this is going to work out great.

 

[Guest]

Do you pump the cover off?

My cover sits on the water but seems to let some water seep UP, so there is some water on the cover. I havent' noticed water going through it DOWN into the pool. (this is my first winter owning the pool and I'm using the cover that came with it).

I've pumped some water off of the cover after rains but there's always at least a little water on top and the pool level seems lower, so it appears that water is seeping up. I've cleaned off the leaves from the cover, so it's clean but noticed a little algae on top so threw a little bleach in there. There's 3 big pillows that go across the pool diagonally and there's a puddle on each side.

Sue

I put a Arctic Armor cover on about a month and a half ago, the kind that water penatrates, and I couldn't be happier. I was cleaning the pool every couple of days because of all the leaves ect. I still run the pump a few hours a day and clean off the cover about once a week. We have leaves fall all winter and I think this is going to work out great.
I put a Arctic Armor cover on about a month and a half ago, the kind that water penatrates, and I couldn't be happier. I was cleaning the pool every couple of days because of all the leaves ect. I still run the pump a few hours a day and clean off the cover about once a week. We have leaves fall all winter and I think this is going to work out great.

 

[newnick]

No need to pump it off, the water goes through it both ways.
The wet leaves and acorns etc. end up in the middle after the wind blows the edges of the cover up and the center sinks down about 6" below the surface, just enough to scoop them out. After scooping them out the cover ends up floating back to the surface of the water.