To cover or Not to cover AG pool...

[ctowsley1]

I’ve heard of people not using a pool cover, and I’m thinking it might not make a big difference if we didn’t cover this year.
Background: we covered last year and had horrible wind problems until it finally froze to the pool. But, did have clear water in the spring, so that’s a plus.
We had some really sporadic late summer temps this year that dropped really low at night and cause major evaporation, the pool wasn’t getting used because the water temp was dropping... as well as the water level. Plus school started and I didn’t have time to mess with it anymore. I decided to stop refilling and just use my pool vac to keep it clean and circulate water. Over the course of the last 2 months It evaporated to almost a foot below slimmer level.
The pool right now is not clean. It has a bunch of leaves and the vac stopped working on the skimmer, I had it hooked directly to the pump but now I have to clean out all the leaves in the pump.
I’m DONE with this pool now. It has no cover on it, and I’m considering just leaving it off for the winter and dealing with cleaning it in the spring, it will be easier and I know the best way to do it! ?
Another bonus piece of information: I pulled out the pool cover to discover a huge nest of ants and some holes. So, maybe it would be pointless to use it anyway. I really don’t want to buy another $100 cover. I already need a new solar cover for next spring!

So, there’s my story, sorry for the long details. My husband thinks no cover means a damaged liner in the spring, but i don’t think that’s true, so was hoping for anyone else on team NO Cover! Haha

 

[Catanzaro]

Hard to tell if the liner could be damaged. All depends on what is blowing into the pool. Any possible tree limbs falling into the pool, etc. I know that you want to be done with the pool, but it would be a lot easier to perform a SLAM with the current weather and cleaning it up. Regarding your cover full of ants, when you do purchase a new cover, fold up after allowing to dry and place in a plastic bin and store away. Mine goes in a 27 gallon bin and tucked away in the basement (or you can place in garage or shed), somewhere away from exposure to critters.

You can leave the pool without a cover, but I would not. Depending on the damage and holes, you may be able to patch them up.

- - - Updated - - -

Did the vac stop working in the skimmer because of the leaves?

 

[cfherrman]

My pool is clean for non tfpc standards, my cover blew off in the same week I put it on. I'm just going to add bleach and mix with floor brush.

 

[Catanzaro]

My pool is clean for non tfpc standards, my cover blew off in the same week I put it on. I'm just going to add bleach and mix with floor brush.

I am assuming you are leaving the cover off? If so, add a little bleach each day and mix as you will not burn off that much. If you have something to circulate (an extra pump) for about 24 hours, then add all at once to bring up to SLAM based on CYA.

 

[cfherrman]

Really neglecting it, just adding one or two gallons a month, at about a jug or half jug at a time. I've been running like this for the past two months and have been fine with the pool pump circulating, now that it's closed I'll use the brush to circulate. Yes cover is off it gets windy here 20 mph daily is common so I'm not going to ever bother untill I have a in ground pool.

Don't copy the bleach method of mine, but just keep up on the pool with the cover off by brushing and removing leaves. You can test your water and add bleach weekly as algae is hindered and a lot less sun hits the water. If you wanted great circulating drop in a sump pump for a hour and pull back out.

 

[ctowsley1]

Update: I apologize for abandoning my thread, it just popped up when I was clearing out all the open pages on my phone. I did decide to cover. But there was still a bunch of leaves in it when I did, I gave up. The leaves were clogging my vac and pump basket, I unhooked the skimmer completely because my water level was so low and I wasn’t going to fill it just to drain it again after clean. (I connected the vac hose directly to the pump/filter,) Plus all the floating seeds and pollen I couldn’t get with the vac. So I called it, covered it, and said see ya in the spring. Hope the rain and snow melt through the holes will give me a nice spring fill up and I can remove the cover to get it started early.
Happy Holidays everyone!