Closing a new AGP in Portland

[rootusrootus]

I see that this has kind of been asked in various threads, in various ways, but I was curious what the current consensus is.

Aside from the occasional (every 40 years) ice storm, here in Portland it doesn't get especially cold in the winter. Rare is the day where the temperature isn't above freezing during daytime, and even at night it's more often above freezing than below.

I'm trying to decide what I really want to do for the pool this winter. It doesn't really need a cover, there aren't any trees particularly close by. If I did get a cover, it'd probably be mesh, since we do tend to get a fair amount of rain over the winter and into Spring. But I'm not especially worried about anything freezing, and I can easily run the pump on low speed occasionally if it's expected to be in the 20s overnight. That should keep everything happy, yes?

Maybe I'm missing something. It just doesn't seem like we have too much to worry about here, we don't get the kind of hard freezes that other places north and east do, certainly no danger of freezing the water in the pool itself.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

You're basically describing my weather for winters in Georgia. Rarely so cold that folks close their pools.

That said, we do cover our equipment pad with a heavy "movers" blanket and tarp and Skippy slips one of those hanging auto lights under there so that on freezing nights the pipes stay a degree or so warmer. We also run our pump all night long overnight during hard freeze weather.

Maddie

 

[Mdragger88]

One thing to take into consideration is power outages. If the power goes out, no pump running = freezing stuff.
Have a backup plan to quickly drain your equipment & plug things up if that occurs.

 

[rootusrootus]

One thing to take into consideration is power outages. If the power goes out, no pump running = freezing stuff.
Have a backup plan to quickly drain your equipment & plug things up if that occurs.

That is a good point, thanks for bringing it up. After our catastrophic ice storm last year (and by catestrophic, I mean better than an inch of freezing rain on everything, knocking power poles down all around us, etc, it would have been hard on the pool!) I really upped my backup game. New propane genny and 90# of propane on hand in case I need to power the blower on our furnace, etc. Being out of power for a week at those temperatures *sucked*. I'll be so much better prepared next time, which means it won't happen again in my lifetime. LOL

 

[YippeeSkippy]

It takes a few days of freezing temps to cause a pool to freeze over.

 

[Mdragger88]

That is a good point, thanks for bringing it up. After our catastrophic ice storm last year (and by catestrophic, I mean better than an inch of freezing rain on everything, knocking power poles down all around us, etc, it would have been hard on the pool!) I really upped my backup game. New propane genny and 90# of propane on hand in case I need to power the blower on our furnace, etc. Being out of power for a week at those temperatures *sucked*. I'll be so much better prepared next time, which means it won't happen again in my lifetime. LOL

We just have a welder/generator so I would definitely be choosing to run my fireplace blower, lights & fridge over running the pool.
I have had to run out & quickly disconnect an above ground pool before when my “run the pool while freezing” plan didn’t work out- its not fun & there’s risk that everything doesn’t drain out of the pump/filter etc before freezing ensues.

 

[rootusrootus]

We just have a welder/generator so I would definitely be choosing to run my fireplace blower, lights & fridge over running the pool.
I have had to run out & quickly disconnect an above ground pool before when my “run the pool while freezing” plan didn’t work out- its not fun & there’s risk that everything doesn’t drain out of the pump/filter etc before freezing ensues.

Yeah, if push comes to shove, I'm going to run the heat, fridge, and freezer, and wish the pool luck and "see ya in the Spring, hope I don't have to replace too much." . I'll give this whole cunning plan some more thought, we're still a ways off from when the real cold weather gets here so I have some time. I need to practice a plan for winterizing it quickly anyway, just so I understand the ins and outs of the various pieces of equipment and how they get winterized.

 

[Newdude]

It takes a few days of freezing temps to cause a pool to freeze over.

Thats at the beginning. The problem we learned with the great TX freeze was that we kept their pools running for days, well below freezing. When the power went out, the mid 20 degree water froze solid in minutes.

It was working awsome until it didn't, but we learned from it going forward.