Over-wintering Intex Pools experiences/advice

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Well this will be our first winter leaving our 18' intex up and winterized. Got the middle of the road cover, winterized the water and dropped it down below the intakes. Removed all the equipment to inside. Cover is attached with the cord and milk jugs. Yes, there is a pillow in the middle and the pool appears frozen so we are seriously not touching it. Debating snow removal so I'm keeping an eye on it. Siphoned water all winter and This is our first snow (expecting 24"). I'll keep you all posted :)

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Sorry I didn't get back here.. Had trouble finding the thread again. Pool held up well! I'll take a pic of the set up when I get a chance even though the snow had melted now. We got 18" and it froze down to some serious snow pack on the pool. Debated shivering any of but decided to not touch it as it all seemed to be holding up ok. If we had gotten more before it melted I might have. The weight displaced a lot if water through the open holes for the intakes but when or melted I siphoned off most of the water and the water jugs/redneck cover weights held the tarp well. Cover is still in good shape and looking forward to seeing how the water did. Starting to warm up here already so might not be long before I have to pull the cover and start it up. Overall, I think it was a success!

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AmyMrsR said:
Are those cables supporting the frame? How did yours do?

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Those are ropes across the top of the pool to keep the winter cover from going anyplace when we get high winds. I added another rope around the outside bottom of the frame because I thought lowering the water level might put more stress on the bottom of the pool. The pool held up over the winter with no problem at all. One of my spring projects is going to be adding additional grommets to the winter cover that the cover cable goes though so it closes better over the top rail of the pool.
 
I ran the cable through the grommets and behind the poles as added protection if the cover did get pulled up by the wind. I then hung milk jugs nearly full of water all the way around. Everything held up very nicely. I subscribed to this thread and figured out how to find it by that. Next project, real skimmer! My husband is incredulous that I'm going to cut the pool :D

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I forgot to mention that we had a 12' intex for 4 yrs. Put it up, took it down every yr. Biggest pita. Was NOT dumping 6500 gallons and trying to dry out an 18' pool which is why I researched and made the jump to winterize. We have a14" sand filter and the new style intex with 2 inlets (for the record, not liking it but can vacuum if I plug off the 2nd inlet at least) also considering adding salt generator this yr.

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Larryh86GT said:
Those are ropes across the top of the pool to keep the winter cover from going anyplace when we get high winds. I added another rope around the outside bottom of the frame because I thought lowering the water level might put more stress on the bottom of the pool. The pool held up over the winter with no problem at all. One of my spring projects is going to be adding additional grommets to the winter cover that the cover cable goes though so it closes better over the top rail of the pool.
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How big was your cover? Mine hung over at least 2' so keeping it over the rails was not a problem. Pillow moved some but not until the end of the snow so I'm not concerned. Itching to get the cover off and see how the water looks :)

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My first winter cover was for a 16' pool size but as I had to drop the water level down past the pump inlet the cover did not have enough slack in in so I then bought a 18' pool winter cover and that one is perfect other than not enough grommets for the cable to go though. My pillow did survive the winter even though I had it roped to the middle of the pool it has shifted over to the side and it is not as inflated anymore. I doubt it will last another of our winters so I plan to make my float from upside down intex rubber rafts tied together in the center. That will be a fall project and I will see how it works. I have peeked at my water though the side of the cover and it looks clear but there is still some stuff on the bottom that will need a good vacuuming when it's time.
 
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pulled the cover today, very happy with the fall effort [emoji4] straightening some of the poles while the level is low and going to look at some skimmers. Anyone cut their pool for a skimmer yet? I figure I need to raise the level, shock, hook up the pumps and get it going fairly quickly so I don't have to fight any green that will creep in. I'll keep taking pics

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Looks good! I didn't cover mine and got some debris, so I will open with a SLAM. I just drained some water out, with all the rain we had this winter, it was up past the blue squares. I'm really wanting to hook up the filter, but worried we still might get some freezing.

I keep thinking about the skimmer, but don't want to lose the water depth. My son has grown to nearly 6 feet tall.
 
I siphoned about a foot of water off the winter cover yesterday. I am leaning towards just emptying the pool entirely when the weather gets warm enough, then raising and leveling the pool legs a bit, then refilling. It's only about 3000 gallons I am dumping which isn't that much. Then I will be starting with a clean slate water wise and I might be able to get some of the wrinkles off the bottom of the pool. :)
 
Week I got strep from my loving family :D so pool day too long and is starting to get a little green but I've cut the PVC for hard plumbing and attached the skimmer. I'll cut tomorrow .. Getting a little late tonight. I thought about lowering the level even further to put better support under the poles but decided that it's still pretty level and the floor looks good. I'm going to have to hit the pool hard once it's running since this all took so long so I got a starter kit. The skimmer will make it easier to vacuum which is a good thing. Using rubber reducers so winterizing next year is easy.

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So I guess I'm going too move over to an intex modified thread but FINALLY seem to have everything hooked up with no leaks. Tightening the screws on the skimmer with a #3 Phillips definitely did the trick. Started the pump but it's sucking the water from the skimmer faster than the pool level can tell so air in the lines. Shut it down and filling it some more.

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