Not using the pool for a few months

[slepax]

Hello all,

I am asking a question for a friend, so please ignore the info in the signature.

He has quite a large in-ground liner pool with a sand-filter, SWG, and obviously a pump. The liner has deteriorated and requires replacement. Unfortunately there will be a few months until he can get the job done. He is experiencing quite a lot of water loss (water leak) so the current thinking is to temporarily decommission the pool for about 5-6 months.

This would mean that he will not be able to filter the water, run the pumps, or basically do any maintenance on the pool for that period.

He has a couple of questions before going ahead with this:
1) is there any prep that needs to done?
2) being that the equipment is quite old (most likely 10+ years), is there any risk that the equipment will fail/break due to not being used?

Thank you!

 

[kimkats]

Is he going to try to keep the water level up?

The equipment will be fine sitting. I would drain the water out of it so the water in it does not go green.

 

[ajw22]

Draining water out of a liner pool and letting it sit risks the pool walls caving in. If the water is drained then the walls should be braced with plywood and 2X4s.

 

[slepax]

Thanks for the answers.

At the current rate he is losing about 20-25cm of water each week. He has been trying to maintain water level to keep the equipment running but this is getting very difficult, expensive, and wasteful, so the current thinking is just to let the pool drain.

He bought the house recently with the pool in it, so he does not know for sure what is the structure around the liner. It seems the surrounding walls are concrete but the bottom could be just compacted sand, otherwise it's puzzling how he's experiencing so much water loss.

Draining water out of a liner pool and letting it sit risks the pool walls caving in. If the water is drained then the walls should be braced with plywood and 2X4s.

Assuming the walls are concrete, do you still think there is a risk of the walls caving in?

 

[ajw22]

Assuming the walls are concrete, do you still think there is a risk of the walls caving in?

I doubt the walls are a concrete and rebar structure the way an inground pool is.

Depends what the structure is.