Equipment PSA for the folks in warm climates

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Newdude

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Jun 16, 2019
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Hey all !! It seems like forever ago that we saw warm places freeze like they shouldn’t have.

Take a few moments this weekend in beautiful weather to check/download your equipment manuals to find all the drain plugs. Each the pump, filter and heater should have 2 locations. When many people were forced to learn last time, it was an emergency and there were more pressing / life threatening issues going on. Or it was 3 AM and they were fumbling with flashlights after the power went out.

If you have built recently, take a minute in good times to learn how to shut your system down and drain it all. If you are currently building, make sure the PB includes this in their pool school.
 
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Nows the time folks !!! In your shorts and flip flops and with a nice drink to help the boringness of the much needed skills. If it ever matters again that time will be worth it’s weight in gold. :)
 
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^^^^ THIS!!! Thanks @Newdude!

It takes just a few minutes to look around your equipment pad and locate those drain plugs.
All of them! Too many people, here in Texas, didn't know what to do. If they were lucky they
found someone who could help them but many were given incorrect info (or none at all) from
their pool companies. It wasn’t pretty. It *was* expensive.
 
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Lilypad said:
Too many people, here in Texas, didn't know what to do
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We had so many members who were usually long winterized and off doing winter things come back specifically to help out with their seasonal knowledge/skills after seeing the news but with so many systems and configurations out there we were just overwhelmed trying to get everyone their specific advice.

It was heart warming to see the insane effort from everybody trying to help everybody, but in the commotion a lot of small details were missed.

Let’s all hammer out those details now while we have good weather and lots of time for questions. Especially for those with antiquated systems or atypical setups.

Please everyone, new and old, post up pics and questions now or in the near future. We’d all love to help under these terms.
 
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I’ll be doing something similar this summer. I’m going to close my pool this year if I get comfortable enough with my understanding of my equipment to do so. The point here is well taken. Do things when it’s optional and not when you’re forced. I don’t want to try to figure everything out only to get overwhelmed and have to call someone in late in the fall.
 
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Yes 🙌
Sadly this year many who were quite dependent upon their pool service/builder called them & the only guidance they received was to leave the equipment running since they were too overwhelmed to go out & close all the pools they just built. Unfortunately that only works if u have power as many learned the hard way. Even if u plan to use a service for maintenance & closing/opening you need to know how your equipment operates! Not only to mitigate equipment damage but for safety reasons as well.
 
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Momma4 said:
In a situation like this, would we follow the steps to close a pool?
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If you have the knowledge/ability and the time, yes. If the power goes out at 3AM mid freeze week, you may just need to emergency drain and hope for the best.

This is a really great question Momma and the answer is 'it's complicated' :ROFLMAO:

To properly close a northern pool, it needs to be drained a bit and the right adapters or blow through plugs are needed to blow out the plumbing. One would need the right stuff before hand and most won't have it. And even of they did, many found themselves in life-threatening wind and cold last year messing with the equipment pad. They only had so much time to spend.

But if you had the right parts and a weeks warning, you might want to spend a couple hours winterizing the pool like a northerners.
 
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I’m glad this thread was bumped. I was lucky in the Texas freeze of ‘21. Our power cycled off and on about every 1-2 hours, but we never lost power for an extended period of time - at most maybe 3 hours. Pool equipment survived, but I need to know how to winterize in case we ever have another storm like that. I’ve never winterized in 15 years of pool ownership and always thought it meant draining the pool completely.
 
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It may help if you paint the plugs a light blue to help make them easier to see in the dark with a flashlight, as long as it is safe to paint some of these plastic ones.
 
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Very, very good PSA. I didn't have my pool during the big feeze-out, but I did have a neighbor posting a pic of them standing in the middle on the ice over their spa! I don't have a whole house generator, but I guess I should have gas and portable ready long past hurricane season.
 
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Hi guys! Thanks for the info. Very helpful. My cleaner pump broke during the TX winter freeze. I never knew that we should have drained the equipment. I spent some time reading the owner's manual. Someone stated that most equipment will have 2 drain plugs. I see that with my Pentair IntelliFlo pumps but I only see one drain plug for my Pentair Clean & Clear Plus cartridge filter as well as my Pentair MasterTemp heater. Could someone confirm that there is only 1 drain plug for these 2 machines or am I missing something here? Thank you!
 
Also, I'm having a hard time removing the drain plug from my filter. I have a 7/8" wrench but I think the hex is stripped. I also don't have much leverage due to the equipment setup. There is so much stuff in the way. Is there a better tool or way to remove the drain plug?angled view.jpgstraight view.jpg
 
Brian T said:
Is there a better tool or way to remove the drain plug?
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Does the drain nut have a slot ? I use the bar part of a screwdriver to open mine.

If you can't get it, open the filter and bucket or shop vac out the bottom half. Or open the two unions and dump whatever doesn't pour out.
 
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