In my mild climate, I don't close the pool for winter. But every winter, I drain my solar panels, leaving the drains open. This is to prevent freezing in the panels, which look pretty delicate with all those little tiny tubes through which water passes.
In my climate, we may get 2 or 3 nights a year when the temperature falls below freezing. But I sure don't want to damage those panels.
Now I have a new Pentair EasyTouch 8, which includes a setting for solar freeze protection (as well as main pump freeze protection) and the proper sensors for air, water, and solar temperatures. It would be more convenient to enable that than to drain the panels.
So my question is: have any of you used solar freeze protection on the EasyTouch, and did it work? Any panel damage, mold buildup, or other unintended consequence of not draining the panels?
In my climate, we may get 2 or 3 nights a year when the temperature falls below freezing. But I sure don't want to damage those panels.
Now I have a new Pentair EasyTouch 8, which includes a setting for solar freeze protection (as well as main pump freeze protection) and the proper sensors for air, water, and solar temperatures. It would be more convenient to enable that than to drain the panels.
So my question is: have any of you used solar freeze protection on the EasyTouch, and did it work? Any panel damage, mold buildup, or other unintended consequence of not draining the panels?