Close or Not to Close Fayetteville GA

[Rtohonde]

I am in Fayetteville GA, 1st winter and not sure what to do to be ready. I plan to Not close the pool, cut down pump running time from 12 hrs a day to 6 hrs. Check chemistry weekly and brush weekly.
What else do I do. The equipment has the freeze protect set at 38 F. Is this okay.
Do I remove the salt cell and put the dummy and simply use bleach?
Trying to get best advise to ensure successful winter.

 

[duraleigh]

I would reset the freeze protect to 32. The pool water will never freeze in your climate, anyway, but running the pump at 32 is a good idea to protect the pipes. 38 is just a waste of electricity.

Treat the pool like it is mid-summer and you will be fine. Of course, switch to bleach (you will use far less than summer) and keep the pool clean.

 

[colrhino]

I am in Fayetteville GA, 1st winter and not sure what to do to be ready. I plan to Not close the pool, cut down pump running time from 12 hrs a day to 6 hrs. Check chemistry weekly and brush weekly.
What else do I do. The equipment has the freeze protect set at 38 F. Is this okay.
Do I remove the salt cell and put the dummy and simply use bleach?
Trying to get best advise to ensure successful winter.

Good morning, I live in Kennesaw and I have done just what you are describing ever since we had our pool built going on four years now. I’ve never had any problems with my water. I have my freeze protect set on 32*. I believe the salt cell stops working at around the 55* water temperature mark. I use bleach and/or tablets as needed throughout the winter. It doesn’t take much when the water is that cool. Just try to keep the leaves and other organic matter out of the pool as best you can. You should be fine.

 

[jblizzle]

I agree to lower the freeze protection. For a little added protection to the pipes, throw a tarp over the equipment pad which will keep the pipes warmer.
You could switch to running the pump for a few hours over night also so as to not rely on the freeze protection.

 

[Ab6349]

Rtohonde,
Im in Locust Grove which is only about 20 minutes away from you. Sounds like your plan will work, I pretty much did that same thing last winter. I left the salt cell installed. I just unplugged the salt cell connector from the bottom of my easytouch panel(make sure your salt cell is off before you unplug it) and put a protective bag over the connector when the water temps got near the SWG shutoff point. I was kind of lazy and used pool life NST pucks(adds calcium instead of stabilizer) instead of bleach during the winter. Take jblizzle's advice and change your schedule to run overnight instead of during the day. Before I did that my pump would run during the day as scheduled then run again overnight for freeze protect. I did not reset the freeze protect temp last year but it sounds like a good idea.

 

[Rtohonde]

Thank you all for the advice

 

[Gadragonfly]

We're just next door, in Fairburn. We kept our pool open last winter without any problem, despite a week of snow on the ground and lower than normal temperatures. Most of the winter our outdoor temps were above 36 and we didn't worry about freezing. We ran the pump every night from about 2 am to 6 am when temps started dropping into the low 30's and when it snowed we ran the pump 24 hours (for several days). I checked the chemicals twice a week and we brushed and scooped out leaves about once a week and threw the robot in once a month.

Julie