Closing/covering AGP in So. Calif--couple of questions

[criz p. critter]

This is my first closing for a pool we got last July. I know I don't have to literally close the pool for the winter, due to our So. Cal location, but the thing is we are leaving for a 4 week vacation, and I'm thinking the best thing to do is keep it covered. This time of year it gets windy, and the afterward the pool will have lots of dirt and leaves. I also don't want to take a chance that, if it happens to rain a lot, the pool will overflow. We'll have a housesitter, but I don't want to burden her with having to deal with the pool.

So, my plan is to cover the pool, and have the housesitter just add chlorine once or twice a week through the skimmer. The filter will run on the usual schedule. When I get back I will decide if I want to leave it covered for the rest of the winter, or open it up again. Does that sound like a good idea?

Also, a few questions:
1) Is it safe to add the chorine through the skimmer? I've read conflicting opinions.
2) Should I shock the pool before covering? Or just keep the levels normal?
3) Is there a drawback to having the chlorine levels too high? And how high would be too high?

Any advice will be appreciated!
Chris

 

[JohnT]

Covered or not, the water is still going into the pool.

You can add liquid chlorine through the skimmer if you add it slowly with the pump running.

If it's going to be windy enough to worry about leaves blowing in, you'll have to anchor the cover very well, which will make access to the skimmer tough. AG covers are notoriously susceptible to wind.

IMO, cleaning the leaves out would be less trouble than messing with a cover.

 

[criz p. critter]

Covered or not, the water is still going into the pool.

I'm putting in air pillows also, but I see your point: whatever I do the water will run off and over the side of the pool. But I'm thinking that it'll be better covered because, without a cover, the water would fill the pool until it finds the lowest point of the wall and then spill out there and possibly cause a problem with the wall sinking in that area.

You can add liquid chlorine through the skimmer if you add it slowly with the pump running.

That makes sense.

If it's going to be windy enough to worry about leaves blowing in, you'll have to anchor the cover very well, which will make access to the skimmer tough. AG covers are notoriously susceptible to wind.

Since this is my first winter with the pool, I'm going to be finding out a lot of stuff like how the cover will work out. I'm hoping that it'll stay put for the 4 weeks I'm gone. If not, I guess my housesitter can pull it off.

IMO, cleaning the leaves out would be less trouble than messing with a cover.

Thing is, I don't want to burden the housesitter with that. And I'm afraid to let 4 weeks worth of dirt and leaves to pile up. If I weren't going away for so long, I think I might leave it off and just clean it like you suggest.

Quite possibly I'm overthinking this, but like I said this is my first winter with the pool, so I don't know what to expect and leaving it on its own for a month has me nervous. The water has been absolutely perfect since it was installed 6 months ago, and I don't want to come back to a swamp!

 

[JoshU]

What form of chlorine do you typically use (i.e. tabs, granular, liquid)?

Even with the pillows it is a good possibility that you'll need to pump some of the water off of the cover after it rains. It is very important to keep rain water off the cover so it and all of the debris don't end up at the bottom of the pool.

If you're worried about wind you can look something like Winter Cover Wrap from Gladon.
http://gladon.com/winter_cover_wrap.htm

 

[criz p. critter]

I use liquid.

That wrap looks like a good idea.