Use polyquat 60 for covered pool in south?

[GaryT58]

This will be my first winter for pool. I live outside of Atlanta. I do not plan closing per-se, but having my automatic cover over the pool, with my SWG enabled. It will reduce chlorine production as the water temp goes down and stop as needed. It will also run my pump as needed, based upon temperature, for freeze protection. Want to keep covered as I have lots of trees around, especially large pines, so they will be dropping (and some pretty big pine cones) a lot as it get colder.

My main question is should I add polyquat 60? I would be interested if fellow southern pool owners that just cover for winter do this or not.

I figure I can easily check pool 1/week or so to check and see if anything's happening, but would rather just keep closed until spring (well except for maybe New Years Day dip).

Thanks,
Gary

 

[JVTrain]

I wouldn't see a need to add polyquat to your pool if you're not planning on closing. I don't even use it on mine when I close anymore.

You have a good plan of keeping it covered and checking at a minimum once per week when the water temp is cool. Most SWG will not operate at below 60 degrees. They are very inefficient at producing chlorine at these temps, so rightly are designed to shut down. Luckily, at these temps in a covered pool, you won't use much chlorine. When your water temp doesn't allow the SWG to run, you need to supplement with liquid bleach. Once your swim season is officially done, I would encourage you to open the pool cover at night, while running the pump to help cool the water until your water is below 60... This will reduce chlorine demand and reduce chances of algae growing. Opening the pool occasionally throughout the winter on a sunny day will also allow any CCs that have formed to be burned off by UV light.

 

[GaryT58]

Thanks for your suggestion. Makes sense.

 

[duraleigh]

As JV says above, I would skip the polyquat.......unneeded expense

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I am not far from you and never close. True, the SWG won't be producing chlorine so just turn it off and use bleach on the occasions that you open the pool up to air it out. You won't need to add chlorine very often, but its a good idea to open up the autocover now and then and test the water.

 

[GaryT58]

I am not far from you and never close. True, the SWG won't be producing chlorine so just turn it off and use bleach on the occasions that you open the pool up to air it out. You won't need to add chlorine very often, but its a good idea to open up the autocover now and then and test the water.

Thanks. I know the swg will shut down when the water is cold, but it has a mode that will monitor the temperature (has temp sensor) and will run my pump when necessary to prevent any potential freezing.

 

[harleysilo]

We are in the same boat, i have the same autocover. I just turn on freeze protection which results sometimes in the pump running for a week or 2 straight. I also open the pool once or twice a week just to keep the autocover operational (installer told me most issues arise in spring after nobody opened pool for 4-6 months). I don't add any additional chlorine except in the event that we have a warm spell like last December and the kids want to swim in 50 degree water when it's 80 in the afternoon....

 

[GaryT58]

We are in the same boat, i have the same autocover. I just turn on freeze protection which results sometimes in the pump running for a week or 2 straight. I also open the pool once or twice a week just to keep the autocover operational (installer told me most issues arise in spring after nobody opened pool for 4-6 months). I don't add any additional chlorine except in the event that we have a warm spell like last December and the kids want to swim in 50 degree water when it's 80 in the afternoon....

Thanks for sharing - and to all, this is exactly what I wanted to know.