Completely draining in-ground plaster pool for winter? (SoCal)

[nosole]

To make a long story short, my in-ground plaster pool is currently closer to a pond than a pool given the amount of algae in it. I wanted to find out if it's safe to completely drain the pool for winter and leave it empty til spring, at which point I would pressure wash, refill, and reopen. All of the resources I've found deal with winterizing, but considering I live in Los Angeles, freezing pipes and equipment are non-issues, but I also don't want to unwittingly do more costly damage due to ignorance.

I had always assumed it was a bad idea (for the health of the plaster) to completely drain the pool for any extended period of time, but I'm also very new to pool ownership and recognize that my knowledge gaps are likely abundant. I have zero desire to go through the algae eradication process (again) and maintain the pool (both the cost and the actual labor) through a season when we aren't even using it.

Advice and/or links to other articles would be very much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[pooldv]

Welcome to TFP!

It is not good for plaster to be left dry for extended periods of time. It will dry out and crack. There is also risk of the pool popping out of the ground depending on the water table in your area. Ground water or rain water can float the pool out of the ground usually causing catastrophic failure of the pool.

The best option is to SLAM the pool to kill the algae once and for all and be ready to swim when summer gets here. This is the process, SLAM Process

 

[nosole]

Welcome to TFP!

It is not good for plaster to be left dry for extended periods of time. It will dry out and crack. There is also risk of the pool popping out of the ground depending on the water table in your area. Ground water or rain water can float the pool out of the ground usually causing catastrophic failure of the pool.

The best option is to SLAM the pool to kill the algae once and for all and be ready to swim when summer gets here. This is the process, SLAM Process

Unfortunately, I’m familiar with that process, which is a big ole PITA. OK. Guess I better just suck it up and get to it!

I had a persistent mustard algae problem that never seemed to go away the last time I had to deal with this. I’ll just be annoyingly thorough with the SLAM this time.

Thanks for the help and the reference article.

 

[Rollercoastr]

I bought a home with a "cement POND" this spring. The SLAM process fascinated me. It was really prolonged because I don't spend wkds at home and it kept backsliding on me, but I still remember the day I walked up to the pool and saw the screw heads on the main drain cover.

Cool water with no swimmers is really easy to maintain. I would be looking forward to be looking down (through clear water) and not have to worry about that hassle come spring.