How are my fellow Texans doing this morning lol

[Jane S]

After you turn off the breaker, open the lid and remove any drain plugs you may find. My gut says it didn’t freeze solid and taking action now may help you out.

Open the lid on the filter?

 

[JJ_Tex]

I'm getting ready to add some water via the hose since tomorrow will be colder and I dont want to mess with it then. I also just watched a mini iceberg form on the tanning ledge corner and now is floating in the middle of the pool.

When I'm not checking on the pool stuff, my wife lets me look at the local facebook mom's group page who is currently trying to organize feeding the poor bunnies and birds who are not equipped to deal with these conditions.

 

[Leebo]

Open the lid on the filter?

The lid to the pump

 

[JJ_Tex]

Open the lid on the filter?

And the pump. We have the same pump, and there are 2 tan colored thumb screws on the bottom left (at least on mine). Remove those and see if you can get the water out. I would also loosen the lid of the basket on the top of the pump. Your heater will have a similar plug.

At this point you are just trying to get the water out of there, and give the ice a place to expand so it doesnt kill your equipment.

 

[PaigeMark]

I ran autofill yesterday after it warmed a bit, but seeing the effects of evaporation already. Really don't want to push my luck with running it again or trying to use outside spigot.
Will keep an eye on pool level for sure.

I have had a crazy thought of running hose from washer spigot. Have a lengthy hose in garage that isn't frozen. Is just at thought for now....

That’s our plan...hose spigot in the garage, long hose through the house, out the kitchen window, sealing the window as well as we can. Feeling like a crazy person...

 

[ajw22]

After you turn off the breaker, open the lid and remove any drain plugs you may find. My gut says it didn’t freeze solid and taking action now may help you out.

From Pentair Intelliflo manual....

 

[washcycle]

@Jane S

I replaced the shaft seal on my main filter pump last night because it ran dry before all this started. I heated up a kettle of water opened the filter pump lid and melted the ice that had formed. It wasn't too much at that point. I had removed the drain plug when I found out it wasn't priming. If your pump is toast and frozen you should be able to "winterize" it using hot water, not too hot, to melt the ice. Then while the water is in a liquid state remove the drain plugs.

 

[HeyEng]

Please don’t do that. It will cause your heater to corrode.

* with caveats.

I am running mine now at 7 degrees ambient air temp. Pool is about 80 degrees. I "hot tub" the pool fairly often and with a heater that is 10+ years old...still rocking and rolling. BUT...there can be warranty issues and just because I have been "lucky" doesn't mean other will.

 

[ajw22]

* with caveats.

I am running mine now at 7 degrees ambient air temp. Pool is about 80 degrees. I "hot tub" the pool fairly often and with a heater that is 10+ years old...still rocking and rolling. BUT...there can be warranty issues and just because I have been "lucky" doesn't mean other will.

Note for all that you have a smallish pool and large gas heater.

 

[Leik]

Outside temperature is 7 degrees and pool water is 33 degrees. My tarped pool equipment area is 29 degrees. Pumps running at 2,700 rpm. Almost blizzard conditions right now and I’ve been shoveling snow into the pool to help offset evaporation. Crazy weather.

 

[dkinfowlkes]

Have debated all day whether to pull plug. So many variables. Power loss, evaporation, and if water will even continue to flow with temps in single digits to zero. Everything is covered. Heavy tarp over exposed pipes. Heater and filter also covered and have one more tarp over all of that. I did add water bottles filled 1/3 with RV antifreeze to each skimmer. I am still leaning toward riding it out but can't watch this thing 24/7.

But also worried about damage in pulling the plug now before the really cold temps set in tonight and tomorrow. Plus below freezing until maybe Friday...

Any thoughts on lesser of two evils?

 

[PaigeMark]

Outside temperature is 7 degrees and pool water is 33 degrees. My tarped pool equipment area is 29 degrees. Pumps running at 2,700 rpm. Almost blizzard conditions right now and I’ve been shoveling snow into the pool to help offset evaporation. Crazy weather.

To shovel snow into the pool or not? Anyone have any experience or advice on this...I’m considering It, too. However, we managed to hook a long garage-warmed hose to a spigot in the garage, through a kitchen window and into the pool. I’ll keep you posted.

 

[JJ_Tex]

I'm filling my pool up now. I have a portable propane heater going next to the hose bib since I had to unwrap everything and just using a garden hose into the pool. I also had to dunk the hose in the bathtub for a few minutes since it had a new ice clogs that I needed to break up. I'm taking the hose to the garage with done in case I have to add water again next week.

 

[Romoth]

The spa volume is small and the water temperature will get to above 68F relatively quickly and thus the condensation that corrodes the heat exchanger will not be as damaging.

Heater Condensation - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Holy Crud, I had no idea about this, and PB didn't give me any warning. I was running the whole pool heater while the water was in the low 50s. Did it for several days now. Guess I'll know going forward, and hope I didn't do too much damage to it.

 

[Leik]

To shovel snow into the pool or not? Anyone have any experience or advice on this...I’m considering It, too. However, we managed to hook a long garage-warmed hose to a spigot in the garage, through a kitchen window and into the pool. I’ll keep you posted.

It takes a lot of snow to equal normal rain amounts, but it is better than nothing. I surely don’t want it to drop too low. I have to run my deck jets and fountain and with these winds, some of the spray is blowing out of the pool, too.

 

[ajw22]

It takes a lot of snow to equal normal rain amounts, but it is better than nothing. I surely don’t want it to drop too low. I have to run my deck jets and fountain and with these winds, some of the spray is blowing out of the pool, too.

1“ of rain creates 10” of snow.

 

[dianedebuda]

Did anyone throw in the towel yet and shut it off and drain?

Towel thrown in here. Thought I had pump manually ON, but was off when I looked this morning. With things getting icy to walk on, decided better do it now in the daylight. Fortunately I put a ton of unions in when I rebuilt the pad this past summer. Turned off pump & IntelliCenter breakers, drained filter, removed cartridges, disassembled SWG & pump and more. Heard it was tough to get pump drain plugs back in, so I turned the whole pump upside down.

 

[7snorkel]

when covering your pool pad equipment, should you include covering the heater?

am using a moving blanket and a large clear plastic angled over the top of that. hopefully, the plastic will deflect the the snow from sitting on the covering.

 

[Romoth]

I just put the only tarp I have over my pool equipment, and may go and throw some blankets on top of that. I have the pool and waterfalls running 24/7 now. Houston is just about to get it. PB said that I just need to have the pool/waterfalls running and no need to cover the equipment unless we lose power. I figured I'd cover it anyway (assuming there's no reason not to) and see if I can ride it out. Had my pool for only about 6 months now. I'm not ready for this level of stress!

 

[tgrinchy]

Would having pool lights on help at all with temp?