Friendly reminder!!
even tho we are a couple months away hahathat’s just semi-cheating! But if you’re gonna do all that anyways, why not remove the cover?
Let’s see your water after removing winter cover!! **RESURRECTED FOR 2025!**
- Thread starter thefloatqueen
- Start date
even tho we are a couple months away hahathat’s just semi-cheating! But if you’re gonna do all that anyways, why not remove the cover?
We have 5 seasons here - spring, summer, fall, winter and then pollen season. Pine pollen season will be starting soon. It's bad here. You could wash your car and then come back 5 minutes later and it won't look like you washed it. The cover stays on until the pine pollen subsides. Otherwise I would need to backflush daily. Then the maple trees drop their twirly helicopter seeds and the sweetgums drop their pollen heads. The cover stays on to try to keep the pool clean.
- Jun 1, 2018
- 16,000
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Same ! Its heating up quickly around here so I’m creeping up on 60F in the pool.
- Jun 1, 2018
- 16,000
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
To put it simply….But if you’re gonna do all that anyways, why not remove the cover?
jdsaengine
Well-known member
popped the auto cover for a peek last week when it was 70F. Here in Indiana its 78F yesterday, but will be 45 tomorrow and probably snow in April. Water was crystal clear (sorry did not take a photo) with a few leaves. Water temp was 48F.
Plan on opening 1st or 2nd week of May
Plan on opening 1st or 2nd week of May
I did it both ways and it wasn't that bad. For refrence, my 80+ oaks were so bad that I invented the leafdozer9000 for moving piles once I blew them waist high. I really don't want to hear how 'bad' anyone else's is if they didn't need to invent a leaf dozer. 
When the pollen strings were falling, I needed to dump both skimmer baskets before and after work for 2 to 3 weeks. That's it. Mildly annoying at worst. The pool may have been a little cloudy for the time if it was a bad pollen year. The 500 carts handled it fine and didn't even need a cleaning after, but i cleaned them anyway so I slept better about it.
When the pollen strings were falling, I needed to dump both skimmer baskets before and after work for 2 to 3 weeks. That's it. Mildly annoying at worst. The pool may have been a little cloudy for the time if it was a bad pollen year. The 500 carts handled it fine and didn't even need a cleaning after, but i cleaned them anyway so I slept better about it.
That’s basically what I’m going to do as well. Once there’s no chance of freezing and the ice is melted (I peeked last weekend and it’s about 3 inches thick), I’ll get the water pumping and hit it with some chlorine but keep the cover on until May.
**** MY OFFICIAL 2025 COVER REMOVAL AND REVEAL!! 
****
Okay, so the pool is NOT officially “open” yet, but we removed the solid cover yesterday because it’s pretty beat up and we will be getting 45-50 mph winds today and tomorrow, so I’d rather just take it off than it inevitably blow off into my neighbors yard or something. BUT I did not scoop out a single thing (not much to scoop) until after taking these photos. Did not run the robot since it would be pointless with the weather we have coming our way. If you’re wondering why we don’t just go ahead and “open”, we have a couple things on their way for the equipment (cartridge refill and some new parts for the filter/pump). I also messed up and double dosed the FC at closing and the water is cold still. ANYWAYS…. Let’s get to the good stuff, shall we? The wind was blowing HARD, but I did the best I could.
I know they’re a lil disappointing due to the overcast and the wind. Opening was better than I thought it would be after the beating the cover took all winter. Lots of dirt speckled all over the floor that isn’t visible, but there were about 100 worms less than last season. Now time for some free water from all this rain before setting the equipment up next week and getting it rolling!
Also, new found appreciation for pool pillows! Ours didn’t make it so I had to pump water without one unlike all of my other pool owner winters. I got as much as I could and my husband and I removed the cover together and were able to keep MOST of the brown, dirty water that was leftover on the cover out of the water. Some still made its way in there. Even after that, it is still crystal clear. I wanna see it in the sunlight!!! I’ll take pics when the sun comes out early next week lol!
NEW! Yesterday, I was bored and decided to test the water before the big storms. These were my results after swirling and brushing the water around real good before collecting my pool water sample. Water was so cold!
Only tested FC, CC, and TA. I do not know how accurate these numbers are. 
****Okay, so the pool is NOT officially “open” yet, but we removed the solid cover yesterday because it’s pretty beat up and we will be getting 45-50 mph winds today and tomorrow, so I’d rather just take it off than it inevitably blow off into my neighbors yard or something. BUT I did not scoop out a single thing (not much to scoop) until after taking these photos. Did not run the robot since it would be pointless with the weather we have coming our way. If you’re wondering why we don’t just go ahead and “open”, we have a couple things on their way for the equipment (cartridge refill and some new parts for the filter/pump). I also messed up and double dosed the FC at closing and the water is cold still. ANYWAYS…. Let’s get to the good stuff, shall we? The wind was blowing HARD, but I did the best I could.
I know they’re a lil disappointing due to the overcast and the wind. Opening was better than I thought it would be after the beating the cover took all winter. Lots of dirt speckled all over the floor that isn’t visible, but there were about 100 worms less than last season. Now time for some free water from all this rain before setting the equipment up next week and getting it rolling!
Also, new found appreciation for pool pillows! Ours didn’t make it so I had to pump water without one unlike all of my other pool owner winters. I got as much as I could and my husband and I removed the cover together and were able to keep MOST of the brown, dirty water that was leftover on the cover out of the water. Some still made its way in there. Even after that, it is still crystal clear. I wanna see it in the sunlight!!! I’ll take pics when the sun comes out early next week lol!
NEW! Yesterday, I was bored and decided to test the water before the big storms. These were my results after swirling and brushing the water around real good before collecting my pool water sample. Water was so cold!
Only tested FC, CC, and TA. I do not know how accurate these numbers are.
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Oh, I most certainly disagree. It's officially open.
But not running.
I'd take like the above pics any year.
Gotta love TFP !! You're pulling the cover after months off and looking better than the other people do on their good days.
Oh, and y'all can peep my Golden Retriever, Teddy (he’s been bad lately….little escape artist! 
) and my 5 lb Pomeranian, Craig, in the background of the first pic! I call them my “Blonde Squad”. 
) and my 5 lb Pomeranian, Craig, in the background of the first pic! I call them my “Blonde Squad”.
Pollen season is BRUTAL!!!! I don’t know if you use skimmer socks or not, but they are a lifesaver! Yes, a lot of it will still get through the socks and the filter, but I am always amazed when I go outside daily to change the skimmer sock. It collects a huge amount of pollen and other junk that would otherwise make its way into the filter. I have a cartridge filter, though. My first filtration system was sand. Kept my pool beautiful but it wasn’t as good with pollen. Your answer totally makes sense!
I am realizing that I am the opposite lol. But I’ve always been an early opener. If our cover wasn’t about to get blown all the way to Canada this weekend (it is in BAD shape….rough winter + pool pillow deflating), I’d keep the cover on until opening day, which is whenever the freezing temps are pretty much over (any time between mid-March and April). After finally pumping almost all the water off the cover yesterday, I said IT IS COMING OFF after seeing all the rain coming plus over 45 mph winds. I don’t know what the FC is but I messed up at closing and added double what I was supposed to lol so I think it is safe until next weekend.
Which btw, is there a way to semi-accurately test my FC without the pump yet installed? Like taking a brush and mixing up the pool water really good around the perimeter? I’m predicting it’ll be double digits for sure lol, but I’m curious.
Either sweep up a storm with the brush, or toss the robot in.
You think that’ll give me a somewhat accurate result? What about pH? Obviously, this would only be applicable if my FC is under 10ppm — which would shock me but with all the debris being brushed around and the robot doing its thing, it could be a possibility. I still can’t believe I added that much LC right before closing. 
I somehow forgot that I brought it to SLAM level the day before closing and didn’t log it in PoolMath (and you know I log EVERYTHING! 
) — sooooo, 8 or so hours before closing, I add ANOTHER dose of LC thinking I’m bringing it to SLAM. Thank God I hate this liner and was going to replace it next spring anyways lol
I somehow forgot that I brought it to SLAM level the day before closing and didn’t log it in PoolMath (and you know I log EVERYTHING! ) — sooooo, 8 or so hours before closing, I add ANOTHER dose of LC thinking I’m bringing it to SLAM. Thank God I hate this liner and was going to replace it next spring anyways lol
Oh, and I checked PoolMath and apparently I counted the drops wrong as well before doing my SLAM pre-closing. WHY AM I LIKE THIS?!
WHY AM I LIKE THIS?!
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FC, TA and Ph don't take that much mixing. Salt, calcium and CYA can need a full day to mix.
And besides, you just want to prove there is chlorine in there. A 12 reading can be off by 3 and mission accomplished either way.
The liner looks like it fared well.
That’s how I see it. I stuck my arm in as deep as I could and got a sample. I was at about 3ppm chlorine and 7.2ph. Maybe not accurate but it tells me that there’s probably not much time before the chlorine runs out. That’s why as soon as I can, I’m going to get the pump running and feed it some chlorine. With a sheet of ice on top and the cover shading the water, I think I have a bit more time but I don’t want to push it. I had to slam last year at opening and would like to prevent that this year.
I did what you recommended and FC was 11.0ppm with 0.0ppm CC. That was right after mixing up a bunch of dirt and whatnot, so I don’t know if that will make FC test lower or not (still no CC and water is crystal clear). TA was exactly what it was at closing. Didn’t test the pH since FC was too high. Everything else I’ll test when I get the equipment hooked up and it gets to mix for over 24 hrs.
You're sitting pretty.
Do recognize you'll lose some FC per day now that it's open, but the days are still short and the sun angle low, so it might only be something silly like 1/4 FC per day. Test it weekly and add/brush as necessary.
You'll have it fired up long before you need to anyway.