I actually prefer the water maintains it coldness. I'm not looking forward to closing in the cold . If I run out of 50+ degree days (as forecasted) , before I can find a resolution, then I will table all experiments and close. I have everything ready to go including cyclone blower, solid safety cover with drain panel (already test fitted), several gallons of liquid chlorine, my teenage son, and a plan on how to knock it out in less than one 50+ degree day.Still not warming the pool anything appreciable.
Then experiment on !!!!
I had to go until mid Nov last year when my new cover came in. The 1st Saturday after was in the high 30s and cleaning the carts SUUUUUCKED. Food for thought.
Postponing Closing/Winterizing to the absolute last moment
- Thread starter key1cc
- Start date
As long as your cover doesn’t require a certain water level. Some do.When I do close , i will drain below the returns so I won’t have to stick my hand in the thirty something degree water I expect to close at.
It's a pretty fast process - the greatest amount of time is waiting for the level to drop below the returns. I usually putter around cleaning out the storage area where all the pool supplies/equipment is kept, raising the cover anchors, and getting the cover in position. Actual playing with the plumbing is about an hour, maybe 2 for the first time as you work through the steps carefully. Worst part for us is actually putting the cover on - but my wife and I are in our 70's, and it all hurts to move/get up and down. With a teenager, it will be a piece of cake!
My cover requires no lower than 18 inches from the top of the coping. 16 inches below the top of the coping gets me 4 inches under the returns and 6 inches under the skimmers and 8 inches above the underwater light fixture. Not much wiggle room….
Well closing day finally arrived today…..The temp was in the mid 50’s,
my pH maxed out yesterday at 8.34, and next week is forecasted to have 6 out of 7 nights below freezing and most days in the low to mid 40’s. I don’t want to push it out any longer. With all the sun the past couple of days, pool water temperature is back up to 49F. The closing actually took much longer than I anticipated…mainly waiting for the water to drain ~3200 gallons (a little over 10 inches). As far as my teenage son helping goes, I got a good 20 minutes out of him when it was time to put the cover on…then his phone rings and off he goes. The important thing is it’s done….but if I’m being honest with myself I am sure I will be peeking under the cover every now and then to see how it’s doing…..
my pH maxed out yesterday at 8.34, and next week is forecasted to have 6 out of 7 nights below freezing and most days in the low to mid 40’s. I don’t want to push it out any longer. With all the sun the past couple of days, pool water temperature is back up to 49F. The closing actually took much longer than I anticipated…mainly waiting for the water to drain ~3200 gallons (a little over 10 inches). As far as my teenage son helping goes, I got a good 20 minutes out of him when it was time to put the cover on…then his phone rings and off he goes. The important thing is it’s done….but if I’m being honest with myself I am sure I will be peeking under the cover every now and then to see how it’s doing…..
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- Dec 13, 2020
- 751
- Pool Size
- 19600
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Jandy Aquapure 1400
If you can arrange valves so that water runs in every pipe (all returns and drains, heater, etc. etc.), then set the VSP at low revs 24x7, closing can wait until there's danger of heavy ice on the pool surface. In NC where I live, that's never. I have done this 3 winters now (of the 16 the pool has been through). First two , the water never got below 37F, so there was zero freeze danger. Last winter around Christmas there were 4 nights in a row at ~8F and the water made it to 32F. On the last morning there was a partial skim of ice on the surface. No evidence of ice on the pad, though. There's a flow meter: steady the whole time. Main danger is power or pump failure.
In deep freezes, the pool may freeze but the immediate areas near skimmers and returns will be clear from more water movement, as will all the plumbing.
By you, like you said, the most you get is a thin layer of ice.
When my old trusty 1/2 hp finally died, I was thrilled to upgrade it. $83 well spent. I had a 1 inch backwash hose laying around so im not using its full potential yet, although it still whoops my little pump. Somebody upgraded theirs to 2 inch recently and their drain that used to take most the day took less than an hour.
In the meantime, you can upgrade your existing pump also.
Submersible pump hack.
Hey all !! I’ve been doing this for years but finally got good pics to show the difference. I have a standard 1/3 HP submersible pump withshown here Flow from 100ft 3/4 inch hose. Here comes the fun part : In the sprinkler section of the home centers / hardware store they have 3/4...
www.troublefreepool.com
I started draining down my pool yesterday using the spigot right above the vsp and ~100 feet of hose to take it away from the house. That setup took 43 seconds for the water to fill a 5 gallon bucket…. So that would have taken 8 hours to drain my required gallons.
I realized having the one draining setup was too slow so I dropped a hose in the pool connected to my small transfer pump. This setup took 28 seconds to fill a 5 gallon bucket but since i did not start it until later I felt the 2 setups together still was not draining fast enough.
Finally I connected 2 hoses together to make ~125’ and I connected it to my MultiCyclone pre-filter relief valve and that setup took 52 seconds to fill a 5 gallon bucket.
With all 3 setups running at the same time the draining speed was much faster.
I realized having the one draining setup was too slow so I dropped a hose in the pool connected to my small transfer pump. This setup took 28 seconds to fill a 5 gallon bucket but since i did not start it until later I felt the 2 setups together still was not draining fast enough.
Finally I connected 2 hoses together to make ~125’ and I connected it to my MultiCyclone pre-filter relief valve and that setup took 52 seconds to fill a 5 gallon bucket.
With all 3 setups running at the same time the draining speed was much faster.
A next year project might be to replace the spigot with a 3 way valve that has one side to a 1 1/2" stub of pipe. Then get one of these: Amazon.com
That will empty it much, much faster. My cheap one only gets used for that, and while they aren't the most rugged, they last for years. If the weather is cold, the vinyl hose doesn't stretch much, making it harder to get on the pipe stub. (warm the end with hot water) Use a hardware store hose clamp to clamp it onto the pipe stub.
About 2-3 hrs to lower my pool. I also vacuum while it is running, to get anything remaining on the bottom/sides flushed out at the same time.
The only downside - shut off the skimmers before the water gets toward the bottom of the opening, and draw only from the main drain. For mine - if the skimmers suck air, I loose prime, and it can be a devil to get it back using only the main drain....
That will empty it much, much faster. My cheap one only gets used for that, and while they aren't the most rugged, they last for years. If the weather is cold, the vinyl hose doesn't stretch much, making it harder to get on the pipe stub. (warm the end with hot water) Use a hardware store hose clamp to clamp it onto the pipe stub.
About 2-3 hrs to lower my pool. I also vacuum while it is running, to get anything remaining on the bottom/sides flushed out at the same time.
The only downside - shut off the skimmers before the water gets toward the bottom of the opening, and draw only from the main drain. For mine - if the skimmers suck air, I loose prime, and it can be a devil to get it back using only the main drain....
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I have also found it will hold prime much longer than it will prime anew. A couple times I shut it off, then decided I wanted another inch or two and it wouldn't prime.
That’s a good option worth considering. I was thinking of using the existing drain lever on the multicyclone prefilter which has a 1” opening. Instead of attaching 125ft of 1/2 inch garden hose like I did, i can use a 1 or 1.5 inch drain hose (like the one in your amazon link) the entire length. That should get me a drain speed of close to 35 gallons per minute.
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Well, it didn’t take long.
The day before Thanksgiving I took a sample from the closed pool to test and the PH was 8.47! And I was in the scale forming area of the CSI. I panicked and overnighted a submersible pump from Amazon- capable of 5722 gallons per hour and I dropped it in the pool to circulate…. I only needed to unfasten 4 spring “hold-down straps” to gain access to the pool. I added 1.5 cups muriatic acid and let it mix a few hours. The pH was reduced down to A reasonable 7.95 as my csi is good up to pH 8.2 at the current mid 40’s water temperatures. For now it looks like I am going to have to check weekly (which is not a big deal) to stay ahead of this pH rising issue…..
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You’re panicking too much. A month or two of high CSI isn’t going to hurt anything, especially with the pool closed.
Did not know that…. I guess if I would have closed like my neighbors in September, it would be closed at least 6 months . I am curious though…why would high csi be less of an issue if the pool is closed?
There’s no water flowing through your heater/pump/SWG so there’s no way for scale to form in them. And it takes months and months for that kinda thing to form along with really out of whack CSI. Yours isn’t out of whack, just temporarily slightly high.
If i close in September like my neighbors do, and open in May….that would be around 8 months …that amount of time with constant rising pH could make CSI wayyyyy out of wack.
You are correct, it is only temporarily high because I have been opening the cover every 4 or 5 days finding the pH as high as 8.6 and i end up adding Muriatic Acid to bring it down to about 7.6-7.8. From what I can tell, in this stagnant state, with a solid cover, with a center drain…the pH rises steadily at about 0.2 pH units per day.
And yet. All those pools survive fine. Or else we'd all be opening them weekly/monthly throughout the off season. You're overthinking it. Good on you, and Welcome to 'the club', but you'll be fine.
That’s because your TA is 80. Once it get down to 60-ish it take a lot longer to rise. It may already be lower if you’ve been adding acid.
But the pH is fine for the winter. High pH isn’t going to hurt anything if the equipment is off.