Can I close my pool now?

fndngserenity · Sep 19, 2017

Good Morning!

Last year I was not able to close my pool until October. I am up in Maine and we stop using our pool around the end of August. That means I have to treat my pool and keep it going for at least a month to a month and a half. Right now my pool is still 68°. Can I close it now? We have not used it since August and it seems inefficient to keep the pump running and to keep putting the bleach i. Every day when I am not using it (not to mention leaf debris from my neighbors trees)

I look forward to hearing everyone's feedback. ?

Thank you!

Heather

AftonJeeper · Sep 19, 2017

Some who close early because of leaves will still add chlorine until temps drop. You can mix it in with your pool brush from the corners if you can peel back some of the cover.

fndngserenity · Sep 19, 2017

Ok. Thank you. I have a spring style safety cover that would not really permit me to easily add the chlorine so I will leave it open and just reduce my pump run time. I generally leave my pump on 24 hours a day. We get so much debris from the neighbors huge pine tree and other trees as well as all of my perennials that we just leave it running to ensure we do not have problems. I will reduce it to 6-12 hours a day until I close it.

Mr Bruce · Sep 19, 2017

I have the same type of cover. One day soon I am going to put it on 95% of the way around the pool with one corner (near a return) unattached, just held to the deck with a large rock. I will occasionally peel the cover back and get a sample to test then add whatever is necessary. With the cover on and cooler temps you don't have to stay on it as much, you can probably get away with 2 hr/day pump run time and weekly testing and additions until you are ready to (really) close it.

On the other side of winter on the day I am pretty much sure we aren't going to have freezing temps again, I do it all in reverse. I make sure there is SOME chlorine in there and that pH is fine. Then take the cover all the way off when I am close to swim time (or just tired of looking at the cover

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Perpetual summer · Sep 19, 2017

I am no expert, putting that out front...... I am not as far north of you, the sun this time of year is not as strong or harsh and a lower angle. My pool looses about 1ppm of chlorine a day, if that. I don't think it would hurt to raise chlorine level to near slam level, then cover. It would take a month for levels to settle back down, by then water temps could be below 60.
Experts, would this work?

Chemnut · Sep 19, 2017

I'm also in Maine and mine is closed now. I could care less what the temp is. I superchlorinate it for a week before closing, add poly 60 and put my safety cover on. Once a month I will pull it off a bit and add chlorine if needed. Did I mention I hate leaves &#55357;&#56832;

mickey4paws · Sep 19, 2017

We're closing next week. We would have closed this week but got some warm weather decided to take advantage of. But any day now our maple tree that hangs partially over the pool will started dropping leaves and twirlies and the weather is supposed to get cooler. I have never paid atttention to the pool water temp when closing. We clean it, bring up the FC a few days before, make sure everything is balanced and that's the end of it. We used Poly 60 one year only and it never seemed to make a difference so I never added it again. We have never opened to algae. Lots of gross worms and stuff, but no algae. We use a tarp type winter cover with a bunch of water blocks around it and I still can't figure out how all the junk gets in their, including snakes.

We do usually open early to mid May and the water temp is usually 50 when we open.