We've been in our new house with a salt water pool for 6 months now and it's getting time to decide whether or not to close the pool for the winter. We're in Nashville TN so the winters are reasonably mild. Average lows are in the low thirties or upper twenties. We can get into single digits on occasion.
The pool controller has a freeze protection circuit that turns the motor and swim jet on when the air gets down to 38 degrees. The pool also has a gas heater, but I'm not sure if that does anything for me winter wise or not.
One concern I have about closing the pool is the pump and filter are lower than the water level of the pool. I'm not sure how you can get all the water out of the drain lines in this case. There are valves before the pump for both the drain and skimmer, but they stick out of the block 6 to 12 inches.
I know I'll have to pay a little more for electricity if I leave it open, but less than in the summer I would think. I've run the pump for 15 hours a day through the summer. I've read that I can cut that back to maybe 2 hours a day. And, if I close it, I'll need to get a cover. That's a good bit of money and I'll need to store it somewhere in the summer.
So, any ideas which way I should go? If someone in a similar climate has this all figured out, let me know which way to go. I'm leaning toward leaving it open to keep from having to buy and store a cover, but if I have to, I have to......
Thanks for any advice you can offer.
Thad
The pool controller has a freeze protection circuit that turns the motor and swim jet on when the air gets down to 38 degrees. The pool also has a gas heater, but I'm not sure if that does anything for me winter wise or not.
One concern I have about closing the pool is the pump and filter are lower than the water level of the pool. I'm not sure how you can get all the water out of the drain lines in this case. There are valves before the pump for both the drain and skimmer, but they stick out of the block 6 to 12 inches.
I know I'll have to pay a little more for electricity if I leave it open, but less than in the summer I would think. I've run the pump for 15 hours a day through the summer. I've read that I can cut that back to maybe 2 hours a day. And, if I close it, I'll need to get a cover. That's a good bit of money and I'll need to store it somewhere in the summer.
So, any ideas which way I should go? If someone in a similar climate has this all figured out, let me know which way to go. I'm leaning toward leaving it open to keep from having to buy and store a cover, but if I have to, I have to......
Thanks for any advice you can offer.
Thad