Topic Split by Moderator
OK, I read through the posts in this topic and nobody really suggested anything close to what the guy from the local pool place did last season. This is a 22000 gal Aqua Star pool, vinyl liner, originally installed by the same pool place.
That time, pool closing here in central Virginia (near Charlottesville) didn't happen until January (it wasn't my pool until then) and that day the pool had a thin layer of ice on the top and the pool guy didn't want to break it for fear of damaging the liner. Tried to run the pump and old wiring to the motor blew like a fuse, soldering iron wasn't handy, so that didn't happen. So all that he did was to drain the pump and (Hayward) sand filter, add some chemicals, and put the cover (tight fitting mesh type) on. No antifreeze, no blowing out of lines, no lowering of water level, etc. There were compressible canister plugs that screwed into the skimmer returns, designed to keep the round plastic skimmer housing from being broken by standing water. The lines to the pump from underground are flexible, and I was told they would handle the freezing temps.
I couldn't tell you what exact chemicals were added, but since the pump didn't run, those chemicals didn't make it into the lines.
A couple weeks later the coldest snap of the season happened, the lowest was around 5 F overnight, just one night at that level. In the spring there was no apparent damage, just a slight leak at a joint between the pump and filter which was easily repaired.
Given the above, should I do anything much different from what was done last January?
OK, I read through the posts in this topic and nobody really suggested anything close to what the guy from the local pool place did last season. This is a 22000 gal Aqua Star pool, vinyl liner, originally installed by the same pool place.
That time, pool closing here in central Virginia (near Charlottesville) didn't happen until January (it wasn't my pool until then) and that day the pool had a thin layer of ice on the top and the pool guy didn't want to break it for fear of damaging the liner. Tried to run the pump and old wiring to the motor blew like a fuse, soldering iron wasn't handy, so that didn't happen. So all that he did was to drain the pump and (Hayward) sand filter, add some chemicals, and put the cover (tight fitting mesh type) on. No antifreeze, no blowing out of lines, no lowering of water level, etc. There were compressible canister plugs that screwed into the skimmer returns, designed to keep the round plastic skimmer housing from being broken by standing water. The lines to the pump from underground are flexible, and I was told they would handle the freezing temps.
I couldn't tell you what exact chemicals were added, but since the pump didn't run, those chemicals didn't make it into the lines.
A couple weeks later the coldest snap of the season happened, the lowest was around 5 F overnight, just one night at that level. In the spring there was no apparent damage, just a slight leak at a joint between the pump and filter which was easily repaired.
Given the above, should I do anything much different from what was done last January?