I am new to the pool world, I must ask a question. Do you have to remove the pool stair during the winter? My stair/ladder combination is easily dissassembled, so I am not sure if I need to remove the section in the water for winter. Any comments welcome.
Do you have to remove pool stairs?
- Thread starter CLOberto
- Start date
We have an article in Pool School about closing your above ground pool.
I believe the suggestion there is that they be removed.
I believe the suggestion there is that they be removed.
All depends on whether you're planning on covering it for winter or not. If so, then you'll need to either remove them completely, or push the section that stays in the water over so it's floating in the pool. FWIW, I remove mine and leave them sitting on the deck. I was always kind of antsy leaving them floating in the pool over the winter.
So, even if you leave your pool open during the winter and continue to maintain it, you should still take the ladder out? Or let it float in the water?
This is the first year that I thought I would actually leave it open and maintain it, since it costs so much less, but I figured I would leave the ladder in. I did not realize that you should pull it out anyway. I am curious what the reasoning is. I figured that you pulled it out because of algae growth, but if you maintain chlorine levels all winter then that is not an issue. So what is the issue with leaving them in?
Thanks,
Aaron
This is the first year that I thought I would actually leave it open and maintain it, since it costs so much less, but I figured I would leave the ladder in. I did not realize that you should pull it out anyway. I am curious what the reasoning is. I figured that you pulled it out because of algae growth, but if you maintain chlorine levels all winter then that is not an issue. So what is the issue with leaving them in?
Thanks,
Aaron
If you're leaving the pool open, then I don't see any harm in leaving the steps in the pool. Of course, I've been wrong before (and twice today so far). Any other opinions?
If you are going to cover your pool for the winter, you'll probably have to pull the steps out because the cover will not fit with them in place. If you are leaving the pool open and maintaining, like I am going to do (in Florida, can swim in December at times), then leave the steps in place. No need to take them out if the pool is not covered.
My only hesitation about leaving them in when up north is if the pool freezes. It could do some damage to them I would think.
We technically don't "close" for the winter, but it is too cold to swim. We are able to just run the pump a few hours a day, and when it freezes, and I learned last year that is not enough to make sure the algae does not set up camp in the steps/laddder. It was pretty nasty when we took the ladder out last year, even though the pool was crystal clear and the water was 60 degrees. Hopefully a change in approach this year means it will come out cleaner and require less effort to clean up. Our ladder has a bunch of nooks and crannies- lots of time with a small brush and bleach water to get that all under control.