Pool uncovered for repair. Add chlorine?

Threekids03 · Mar 12, 2025

Hi. I noticed water streaming out of a hole in my above ground pool yesterday. Luckily it’s not down too far. We had a brutal winter and my pool guy thinks it may have been ice. At any rate he’s coming tomorrow to patch it so I uncovered it. The pump is not hooked up because we may still have freezing weather to come, but I thought I might put some liquid chlorine in and brush it around since it’s open just to protect it until opening in May. He said just recover it, but since I’ve been doing the TFP way for chemicals I’ve had zero problems. The water is crystal clear right now. My Taylor drop kit shows no free chlorine. Thanks in advance

ajw22 · Mar 12, 2025

Test the CYA level of the water after you let the sample warm to room temperature so you know how much chlorine to add.

Do you have any ice in the pool? You do not want to disturb ice in the pool as its sharp edges can tear the liner.

Recovering the pool may be the best thing to do.

Newdude · Mar 12, 2025

I wouldn't trust testing from water that sat all winter. If the cover wasn't perfectly waterproof, you could be testing stratified rain or melted snow up top.

I'd add 3 ppm and brush well because it's all but guaranteed you lost at least that much since you closed, and recover the pool until it's time after the liner is fixed.

Threekids03 · Mar 13, 2025

ajw22 said:
Test the CYA level of the water after you let the sample warm to room temperature so you know how much chlorine to add.

Do you have any ice in the pool? You do not want to disturb ice in the pool as its sharp edges can tear the liner.

Recovering the pool may be the best thing to do.

The ice all melted. Good thinking, I wasn’t sure if I could trust CYA level since water is stagnant but I will do that.

Threekids03 · Mar 13, 2025

Newdude said:
I wouldn't trust testing from water that sat all winter. If the cover wasn't perfectly waterproof, you could be testing stratified rain or melted snow up top.

I'd add 3 ppm and brush well because it's all but guaranteed you lost at least that much since you closed, and recover the pool until it's time after the liner is fixed.

Thanks so much! The water didn’t even have a tinge of pink when I added the powder tot he sample so it didn’t seem right not to add anything. It’s protected with the polyquat but open to the sun for a day

ajw22 · Mar 13, 2025

With no ice you can stir the water with your pool brush to try and get rid of the stratification. Then take a water sample.

I would not add more than 3-4 ppm of chlorine if you don’t get any indication of CYA in the water. Then stir the chlorine into the water after adding it.

wireform · Mar 13, 2025

If you have some kind of submersible pump drop it in and let it run for a day or so . By then it should be sort of mixed for a water sample to give you some truth.