Bought a house with pool in June. Never had a pool before & have kept it beautiful thanks to lurking on TFP! Finally registered because even after reading most of the closing topics, I am still unsure whether to close or not. The previous owner said he never closed the pool, just used the freeze protection mode even during our HORRIBLE winter last year. I know the freeze protection is working because it ran a couple of nights ago, but not sure where or how to check it. Don't mind cleaning the leaves out & love how it looks, but I really don't want to deal with problems. The pool has been much easier than I thought it would be so far & I want to keep it that way!

It would sure be helpful if we knew where you are located.

Pretty pool and welcome!

North East Oklahoma as per the info in the sig line. The problem is when there are extended periods of below freezing weather. An overnight freeze is not as likely to damage underground pipes, especially in an area with a shallow frost line. You may want to contact a local nursery and find out how deep the frost line is in your area.

Our pool here in the Tulsa area is still under construction, so I (obviously) can't speak from experience.

Friends of our who have pools and discussions with various pool builders leads me to believe that about 50% of pool owners in our area don't close the pool for winter. What I'm hearing is that, during those cold spells where the temps stay below freezing, they simply run their pumps 24 hours to prevent any problems.

We're getting an AutoPilot DIG-220 SWG system with our pool, and it comes with a freeze protection feature that automatically kicks the pump on when it senses the temp is too cold.

Am I 100% certain we won't have any problems? Nope! But we want to try not closing the pool for a year or two before deciding whether to get a safety cover for it.

I lived in OKC for almost 27 years before I moved to Massachusetts, so i have a little knowledge of the weather there.
I never had a pool while there, but if I did, I would probably close it. You could leave it open and run the pump when it gets cold, but in my experience, thats going to be a lot of running the pump. In some cases, 24/7 for days on end.

I would also encourage winterizing it.

Scott

http://blog.poolcenter.com/article.aspx?articleid=6236

I'm new to all this and have been doing a lot of online reading. Im in Maryland and closing my pool has always been a must but i did come across this article that might help you out.

"Over the past couple of winters, pool owners that did not typically experience freezing temperatures did so. Parts of Texas, Georgia, and California were blindsided with irregular cold temperatures that led to pool equipment damage and put the swimming pool structure at risk. If you are unsure what to expect from Mother Nature, pay attention to local weather and frost depth charts for your location. It’s always best to be on the safe side when it comes to guarding your pool from damage. You can access a frost depth chart at the NOAA website to help gauge whether you might consider a pool closing."