Closing my pool for the winter has always been a long, and as I learned last year, ineffective process. Been dealing with some health issues and am now two months behind in doing this, so would greatly appreciate guidance on two items:
1) My equipment is in my garage which means I cannot just pull the plug to drain my filter. In prior years I have tried various ways to drain using wetvac, all take a while and still leave a mess. I had to add a new multiport prior to this season, and also added unions on the suction/return lines. Is there a series of steps that would allow me to drain the filter as low as possible (into buckets I guess) and then disconnect, lift and put on a dolly to wheel out of garage to drain the rest? Also would like to avoid getting a bunch of DE back in the pool if possible. See first picture of my setup. Would be great to just put buckets under backwash/waste port if possible.
2) I learned last year the method I was using to blow out suction lines was useless. Have been fortunate winters have been mild for years here in MD. I have the old style combo skimmer, so a shared line for skimmer/main drain. I was previously trying to air lock lines using three way valve just before pump by pulling pins, spinning 180*, and closing bottom of the 'T', but it leaks air and after an hour any lock is lost. I guess because the valve wasn't intended to work this way? Are there any alternative options? Antifreeze would just flow into the pool, I think.
1) My equipment is in my garage which means I cannot just pull the plug to drain my filter. In prior years I have tried various ways to drain using wetvac, all take a while and still leave a mess. I had to add a new multiport prior to this season, and also added unions on the suction/return lines. Is there a series of steps that would allow me to drain the filter as low as possible (into buckets I guess) and then disconnect, lift and put on a dolly to wheel out of garage to drain the rest? Also would like to avoid getting a bunch of DE back in the pool if possible. See first picture of my setup. Would be great to just put buckets under backwash/waste port if possible.
2) I learned last year the method I was using to blow out suction lines was useless. Have been fortunate winters have been mild for years here in MD. I have the old style combo skimmer, so a shared line for skimmer/main drain. I was previously trying to air lock lines using three way valve just before pump by pulling pins, spinning 180*, and closing bottom of the 'T', but it leaks air and after an hour any lock is lost. I guess because the valve wasn't intended to work this way? Are there any alternative options? Antifreeze would just flow into the pool, I think.
