Frozen Pool Pics 🥶

[Katodude]

I'd love to have both, wall and geny. But which first? Because of my 6" frostline depth where I live, a one day scenario is not something I'm overly concerned about. I'm freaked about days of no power, with or without sub-freezing temps, or in a heat wave. And if there's snow, what happens to my solar panel output? I don't think a wall is the more reliable, robust solution. A generator seems like it could cover more possible scenarios, for much longer periods of time. Thoughts?

As a south florida person we are prepared for outages. Never cold related but hurricane related. So a combination of Covid and hurricane preparedness has me ready. Here is what we have.

Always at least two weeks of food, dry goods, and frozen. Even as a family of just two we have our main fridge, plus a fridge and separate freezer in the garage.
4 cases of bottled water for drinking. Remember to cycle through them, they do have a shelf life.
A Dual Fuel portable generator. I bought it from Lowes last year, they usually have a sale once a year for 20% off. It has 13Kw cranking, and I think about 10kw running. I think it ended up being about $1000. It will run the entire house without the air conditioners and can run one of the air conditioners when I turn other stuff off. Dual fuel is important because I can run it off individual propane tanks, or I also have a few 5 gallon gas cans. I also bought a little hand pump so I can siphon off fuel from the cars (never actually tested that theory it is supposed to be harder than it seems). I am also getting an extension hose to be able to connect the generator to the underground propane tank which will make all of this easier as well.
I had the electrician wire in a transfer switch so I can connect it can power the whole house. About $1000 to do.
Enough wine, vodka and bourbon to survive the zombie apocalypse.

 

[Waiawa]

WOW!
Glad the lady and her dog is ok, but it could have turned so bad very quickly.
My dog was about to do the same, but I was outside with him, and gave the command NO!
And he came running back to me...whew!
Coming from Hawaii with high surf and strong currents, I have thing about bodies of water and never turn my back on it.
Been raised to respect the ocean no matter how good you can swim, surf or dive...you don't turn your back on the water!
Hence, when my dog goes outside, so do it...even at 2am.
Now I'm debating about having him even come into the pool during the summer...I don't want him to think it's the same in the winter!

For this coming winter I plan on using electrical heating tape on my pipes, insulating all of them and getting either a generator or a battery cell, since we already have solar panels on the roof...I'm wanting it to me as smooth as possible.
Of course once I get all of that we won't have freezing weather...so I'll do it for others! LOL!

On another note, I'm loving this freezing 72* above Zero weather we're now having!
Tomorrow, the system gets turned on, and I can do a good vacuuming!
I added 1-1/2 quarts of liquid chlorine, then did a good brushing and took some readings.
All is good at where it should be...so far so good!
Now to go and enjoy my BBQ ribs!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

All above reasons are why I love my autocover all the more. I wish they were less expensive, but at the same time logic tells me -"Pools are expensive luxuries so just add that cost along to the bill."

Yet there are also less expensive ways to have an "less-auto cover" by leaving the electricity out of it and running the cover via battery powered drill. It may only be an option for surface mount (as that is what Ive seen in the ads) but maybe not? Lastly there are manual crank covers that seal the pool with a tug of rope, but than hardy cranking of the cover when you want to close it again. This obviously for the young and strong!

Maddie

 

[Apsuhead]

I went out and checked my skimmer, it never froze and looks great. My fiberglass pool still has a huge ice glacier in there. It melted some around the edges but it’s still one big huge piece of ice. The pool shell and concrete deck look fine.

 

[monoptn]

I went out and checked my skimmer, it never froze and looks great. My fiberglass pool still has a huge ice glacier in there. It melted some around the edges but it’s still one big huge piece of ice. The pool shell and concrete deck look fine.
View attachment 176689View attachment 176690

Mine survived. It was up and running during the cold spell. I put a tarp and blankets over the equipment pad along with a couple of 100 watt light bulbs. I wasn't convinced it would make it, but we were fortunate and never lost power. Came through like a champ. Today I brushed, ran the robot, and added a little bleach. All good! Next year I will winterize.

 

[AndyTN]

For this coming winter I plan on using electrical heating tape on my pipes, insulating all of them and getting either a generator or a battery cell, since we already have solar panels on the roof...I'm wanting it to me as smooth as possible.
Of course once I get all of that we won't have freezing weather...so I'll do it for others! LOL!

For all of you in the South with mild winters (normally), does this past polar vortex make you want to reconsider whether or not you will close/winterize your pool next year? I normally close mine from mid October to early March but started early this year to get a head start on my annual iron stain treatment. When we were predicted to get temps in the single digits, I consulted TFP but just decided to close it again. My pumps were off with my skimmer and everything above ground dry. I still had my winter tarp on and never had to worry about anything getting freeze damage in temps down to 1 degree.

My original reasons for closing during winter are due to so many leaves from my trees and I still have a single speed pump. The past 2 weeks of the Canadian Hurricane has given me a 3rd big reason to close.

 

[Texasnative]

I don't have a picture of it completely frozen over but when the power was off for around 2.5 hours and it was 3 degrees outside we frozen completely over until everything fired back up.

 

[Dirk]

@Texasnative, frozen maybe, but still amazing looking!

 

[Texasnative]

@Texasnative, frozen maybe, but still amazing looking!

Thanks! Our first pool as adults and couldn’t be happier. Took us 7 years of being married but we got what we wanted.

 

[Dirk]

I've heard the trick to building a pool while married is to still be married by the end of the process!

 

[Texasnative]

I've heard the trick to building a pool while married is to still be married by the end of the process!

After watching our neighbors 8 month build I’d agree, and they are still chasing down one final leak.....luckily our pool came with the house

 

[Waiawa]

Texasnative, that's not a pool, it's a lake!
Very impressive pool....good job!

 

[thomasandanita]

Pool didn’t freeze. We ran the generator.
But still took a couple pictures

 

[PaulAustin]

Well, the freeze is over and the damage is done.
Here's how mine did amidst the cold temps:

 

[Dirk]

Hi Paul! Great video. Good report. Glad you got through it all without too much damage. And welcome to TFP. Stick around and learn what we teach here about pool water maintenance. One of which is: chlorinating your pool with pucks will eventually lead you to problems, so you might consider other, better ways to do that. We can show you how.

If the outlet for your fill pipe is below the pool's water level (so that the fill water comes out underwater), you might give this a read:

Back Flow Preventer - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[AndyTN]

One of which is: chlorinating your pool with pucks will eventually lead you to problems, so you might consider other, better ways to do that. We can show you how.

I am going to actively recruit Paul to join us in the exclusive club of TFP trichlor users. We used to meet every Thursday before the pandemic.

Edit: I used the acronym FTP instead of TFP. My credibility points have been downgraded...

 

[Dirk]

Sanitize with liquid chlorine or SWG he must!

 

[PaulAustin]

Yeah, yeah point taken. Haven't bought pucks for about two years now! Still have a few left in a 50lb bucket that I have used to keep my CYA in check. I generally sanitize with liquid chlorine bought at Lowes or Home Depot. Thanks for the backflow article also. I have a cheapie backflow valve right now (as described in the article) , but need to investigate this further. I really appreciate it!!!

 

[Dirk]

Get a cheap floater and get rid of the feeder. One less thing to fix. One less thing to fail. Move an SWG into its spot if/when the mood strikes.

 

[PaulAustin]

Get a cheap floater and get rid of the feeder. One less thing to fix. One less thing to fail. Move an SWG into its spot if/when the mood strikes.

Good idea on ditching the feeder too.

On your other point, I checked on the fill pipe on my pool. It uses a floater like this, so I think I am OK and don't even need the backflow device or the cheap backflow valve. This rig appears to fill like a toilet. I need to take it apart to be sure, but I think I lucked out with this setup. Does this look right to you?