For Those of You Who Stay Open....

[wjaneala]

first of all, sorry for so many noob questions...

So, if you keep your pool open all winter, do you cover it with anything at all or just leave it alone?

 

[pooldv]

Pool stays open. No cover. Pump runs daily to skim and filter. And add bleach weeklyish and keep FC around 10. Test PH when FC drops below 10. There is not much need for any adjustments. Pool is sorta dormant.

 

[zea3]

If you have a lot of trees I would cover until they stop falling, otherwise stay on top of cleaning them out so it doesn't get out of hand.

 

[Texas Splash]

I'm like pooldv. In the winter, I keep a thick Playtex glove handy for those chilly days when I need to dig my hand down into the skimmer to clean it. Burrrr! On days when there is a freeze advisory, I make sure to keep my pump running to prevent water from freezing in a line. Other than that, start a fire near the pool and look at the crystal clear water.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Agreed. Just stay on top of cleaning and keep an eye on the FC & pH so that the water stays balanced. Chemical additions should be very minimal.

Funny story - File this under the "Hazards of a Winter Pool" category. I was working around the pool last winter cleaning up and trying to remove some small calcium spots near the waterfall. It was literally the coldest week in Tucson, the overnight temperature the night before had been 20F and that day was only about 45F. It was sunny and bright out and still a nice day to be outside. Well, I lost my footing and, you guessed it, fell right into the pool deep end fully clothed There was a few seconds of delay between my clothes getting soaked and the water contacting my skin but HOLY COW was that water COLD!! I ran inside, stripped down and took a nice warm shower. My kids were home at the time and thought it was the most hysterical thing ever. Afterwards I checked the pool water temp and it was only reading 38F.

So, the moral of the story is this - Those guys in the Polar Club are NUTS! Oh, and be careful working around an open pool in the winter.

 

[Texas Splash]

Bwaaahaaha! Way to go Matt! Lucky the kids didn't have cell phones pointed at you. It would be all over YouTube.

 

[borjis]

Haha Matt, I've almost fallen in during the winter too...

I have a pair of "past the elbow" wetsuit material gloves for cleaning out the skimmer in the winter.


I kept my last pool open for winter and will keep the new one open as well.

One of the coolest things (in my book) is when it snows and you have a gorgeous clear pool
surrounded by snow.

I bring it up to near shock level when it gets consistently below 47 degrees and there it stays until
spring.

But I only run the pump for 4 hours each weekend during winter months.
vacuum when needed.

My water stays clear and no algae will grow at that temp so I'm not worried about
lack of circulation for the 5 days not running.

 

[steve57765]

Haha Matt, I've almost fallen in during the winter too...

I have a pair of "past the elbow" wetsuit material gloves for cleaning out the skimmer in the winter.


I kept my last pool open for winter and will keep the new one open as well.

One of the coolest things (in my book) is when it snows and you have a gorgeous clear pool
surrounded by snow.

I bring it up to near shock level when it gets consistently below 47 degrees and there it stays until
spring.

But I only run the pump for 4 hours each weekend during winter months.
vacuum when needed.

My water stays clear and no algae will grow at that temp so I'm not worried about
lack of circulation for the 5 days not running.

Why do you bring it up to shock level when it's that cold? You say "it stays there until spring", do you add bleach during that time to keep it at shock level?

My first winter with pool and plan on keeping it open all winter to

 

[Agent99]

I have a pool cover that keeps stuff out but lets water (rain? what rain?? rain??!!) through and that was installed last weekend. I killed the solar, drained it, and set the VS pump to run at around 1200 rpm (barely moves the water) and that registers 5 psi on my filter. I turned my Liquidator down to 1...FC hangs at 4.5. Works for me.

My funny but could have been worse pool story from earlier this summer: Pool was drained about half way getting ready for resurfacing and full of lottsa stuff. I was working near it capping sprinkler lines getting those ready to be demo'ed as well. Somehow while tightening a cap I slipped with the wrench and spun around on one foot while the other attempted to come back down to the ground. Only it didn't...it found the free air of the pool (deep end) and in I went. Yowza that was some cold water (but not 38F pretty sure). It was a surreal feeling but I felt like I had to swim for my life just to reach the shallow end and I kept swimming despite me being able to easily stand up! LOL Very strange. So I climb out, strip, while my wife comes running saying she heard the splash but didn't see it. She gets me a towel and I head to the shower to clean up thinking what ungodly things were festering in the swap at the deep end of my pool. My daughter and wife laughed pretty hard about it all. I didn't think it was very funny. LOL!

 

[wjaneala]

Haha Matt, I've almost fallen in during the winter too...

I have a pair of "past the elbow" wetsuit material gloves for cleaning out the skimmer in the winter.


I kept my last pool open for winter and will keep the new one open as well.

One of the coolest things (in my book) is when it snows and you have a gorgeous clear pool
surrounded by snow.

I bring it up to near shock level when it gets consistently below 47 degrees and there it stays until
spring.

But I only run the pump for 4 hours each weekend during winter months.
vacuum when needed.

My water stays clear and no algae will grow at that temp so I'm not worried about
lack of circulation for the 5 days not running.

Is 47 or 60 the magic number? I have a feeling mine won't get there until at least November. It was 73 today.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Below 60F the algae reproduction rates fall off dramatically.

Below 50F most SWGs have a cold water cut-off switch.

Below 36F is where your pumps freeze protection circuit should kick in.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[borjis]

Why do you bring it up to shock level when it's that cold? You say "it stays there until spring", do you add bleach during that time to keep it at shock level?

Once it's up that cold and raised near shock level, I won't be needing to add any bleach until March. It might drift a little but not enough to require any addition.
And there is zero chance of it going green during that time..


Interesting about the freeze protection Matt. I was setting the timer on my heater (gas feed off but also controls pump) and noticed the lowest
it goes is 34F.

Yet last winter my pool didn't freeze solid on the surface even down to 19 degrees at night and 27 during the day. Sure there was a huge piece of ice about 1 inch thick but the
last 5-8 inches of water near the sides of the pool and skimmer were not frozen at all.