Acouple of quick closing ?s

[hokulii]

I've been looking over some closing posts and have a couple of questions I don't see addressed.

1. I understand the line blowing concept for the skimmer and jets, but what about the main drain line? I also have an in floor cleaning system which has three pivoting pop ups in the floor, which would need the same attention as the main drain line I think.

2. I understand the concept of the "frostline" underground about 18" or so (being a constant 54 degrees or so), but what is the effect of the frostline in the gravel pit around the pool? It's about 4 feet under the surface, but not in the soil/earth. This is where I'm concerned about the water standing in the main drain and pop up lines.

Usually I pay the pool company to close the pool,they pump anti freeze through all of the lines, and boy is it expensive, almost $500, this uses 43 gallons of anti freeze at $5/gal. and a hefty labor charge-and they're only here for 25 minutes.

Thanks everybody.

 

[Rangerman]

I can't really speak to your questions, but I will say $500 for closing is absurd! I never have anti-freeze pumped in, only the lines blown, capped and the cover put back on = $150.

 

[X-PertPool]

The only time I use antifreeze in the lines is when there is some type of sealing problem with the plugs, IE damaged threads on the pipes etc.

 

[hokulii]

Re: A couple of quick closing ?s

I really appreciate the comments. I couldn't agree more, $500 for a closing is ABSURD. The company drives around in a van that has a very large tank of anti freeze in it, like 400 gallons, it has a very long hose, and a pump. I don't know what pressure it runs at, must be around 20-25 psi. They close something like 2000 pools each year, I did the math on it a couple of years ago and figured they were raking in about 1.3 million dollars a year just in closings!!! Quite a business, selling bulk prop. glycol.

I've been trying to figure out how to do it myself for a while now. I'm nervous to go it alone until I'm confident I'm not going to crack a line, the pool company warranties their closing, if you get a cracked line they'll repair it. I guess a part of the fee then is insurance, still pretty pricey though.

How do the expandable plugs I've been reading about work? I've seen some that you push into the line and then turn a key type thing to expand the plug, but it seems like some of the postings talk about an expandable plug that you can put in and then blow through???

I need to find sombody like X-PertPool in my area, I'm going to do some looking around.

Thanks again, I'm convinced that the TFP people are the best any where!!!