Drain and refill now or wait?

[RVO]

My CYA levels now probably average 160. I live in NC and had planned on closing my pool at the end of October. To drain my pool, I’d need a submersible pump and drain into the street drain. I’d need to run the pump for about 4 hours to get to the level I need. Refilling with a garden hose would take about the same amount of time, 4 hours. Here are my questions.
1) Should I drain/refill now before I close or wait to see how much cya levels drop over the winter and then drain/refill before I reopen in the spring?
2) I thought of cutting my drain time in half by using 2 pumps. This is probably a dumb question, but if I used two garden hoses to refill would I also cut the refill time in half? Or am I limited because they both fill from the same water line that comes in from the street?

 

[kul]

1) Should I drain/refill now before I close or wait to see how much cya levels drop over the winter and then drain/refill before I reopen in the spring?

This is really up to you. With a CYA that high you’re going to have to do it anyway, so why bother waiting?

2) I thought of cutting my drain time in half by using 2 pumps. This is probably a dumb question, but if I used two garden hoses to refill would I also cut the refill time in half? Or am I limited because they both fill from the same water line that comes in from the street?

Two hoses won’t cut the time in half, but it will help speed up the process. Note that your in house water pressure may be affected during this time if you use more than one hose.

 

[Newdude]

+1. Do your best to avoid using the water in the house during the process. Turning on the dishwasher (etc) may knock a bunch of sediment in the pipes and put crud in the pool. If you're lucky, it's just silt, if not, it could be copper or iron particles.

 

[RVO]

This is really up to you. With a CYA that high you’re going to have to do it anyway, so why bother waiting?

Two hoses won’t cut the time in half, but it will help speed up the process. Note that your in house water pressure may be affected during this time if you use more than one hose.

It really bothers me having to dump over 3k gallons of water. I had read somewhere that cya levels would drop over the winter perhaps allowing me to have to dump less water.

 

[Newdude]

I had read somewhere that cya levels would drop over the winter perhaps allowing me to have to dump less water.

It degrades up to 5ppm a month, unnoticeable in the season, but with 6 to 8 months unchecked, can make a decent dent.

Plus whatever you drain for closing, and/or any accumulation from rain if using a permeable cover.

 

[Bperry]

I was gonna say I’m on the side of waiting even though I normally am one of those “fix it now” kinda people. But you’ll need to watch it over the winter and probably add some chlorine to avoid opening to a swamp.

Though 3k gallons isn’t much so do whatever is convenient. I just paid the water bill I got after discovering an irrigation system leak that created a literal river/stream in the back of our property. 68k gallons wasted before I caught it.

 

[kul]

It really bothers me having to dump over 3k gallons of water.

You can wait and see what happens when you open again. I can understand not wanting to drain so much.