Hey all 
There have been a number of posts from the folks who usually don't close their pools, owing to the milder temps down south, who are now experiencing trouble because of this prolonged cold snap
This unexpected and prolonged blast of cold is not to be expected in your area! If you would normally expect this weather, like we get up north, you'd logically have winterized your pool.
I see folks in this situation preparing to winterize their pools next year While some preparation is in order, to prevent disastrous issues, I strongly feel that this aberration in the weather is something that we should expect ~ once in a generation.
As such, I suggest that, rather than fully winterizing every season, when in most years it won't be necessary, you simply be prepared to do a "quick and dirty" winterizing, should it become needful again
Let's face it, the weather forecasters usually don't have a clue whether it will rain or not, however, they do do a lot better with expected temps.
What I propose is to make some small adjustments to your filter system that will allow you to evacuate the lines and drain the equipment if or when we get hit by something like this again.
There are so many different ways pool systems are plumbed that I won't even attempt to generalize it more than to say:
Have plugs ready to plug your returns (after the water has been blown out of them
.
Have a way set up to blow the water out of the lines!
Know where your drain plugs are and be ready to unscrew them and blow them out, if needed.
As each pool is different, we would need to know a good bit about YOUR set-up to advise you properly on what and how to achieve these goals - pics would REALLY help!!
What I'm trying to say here is that, you don't have to fully winterize your pool if you normally don't - but getting prepared to do so would cost a lot less than having a pool company fully close the pool (it should take less than 1/2 hour to do the 'quick/ temporary winterize' I'm suggesting :-D )
I welcome all questions and comments on the above.
There have been a number of posts from the folks who usually don't close their pools, owing to the milder temps down south, who are now experiencing trouble because of this prolonged cold snap
This unexpected and prolonged blast of cold is not to be expected in your area! If you would normally expect this weather, like we get up north, you'd logically have winterized your pool.
I see folks in this situation preparing to winterize their pools next year
While some preparation is in order, to prevent disastrous issues, I strongly feel that this aberration in the weather is something that we should expect ~ once in a generation.As such, I suggest that, rather than fully winterizing every season, when in most years it won't be necessary, you simply be prepared to do a "quick and dirty" winterizing, should it become needful again
Let's face it, the weather forecasters usually don't have a clue whether it will rain or not, however, they do do a lot better with expected temps.
What I propose is to make some small adjustments to your filter system that will allow you to evacuate the lines and drain the equipment if or when we get hit by something like this again.
There are so many different ways pool systems are plumbed that I won't even attempt to generalize it more than to say:
Have plugs ready to plug your returns (after the water has been blown out of them
.Have a way set up to blow the water out of the lines!
Know where your drain plugs are and be ready to unscrew them and blow them out, if needed.
As each pool is different, we would need to know a good bit about YOUR set-up to advise you properly on what and how to achieve these goals - pics would REALLY help!!
What I'm trying to say here is that, you don't have to fully winterize your pool if you normally don't - but getting prepared to do so would cost a lot less than having a pool company fully close the pool (it should take less than 1/2 hour to do the 'quick/ temporary winterize' I'm suggesting :-D )
I welcome all questions and comments on the above.
They warned me to not leave or use, I assume, the Li-ion batteries in freezing temps so I'll be using it on warm days, this winter. We usually have plenty of those. 
But who know about this year. 
If I'm only going to use them for a short period and it is cool outside I try to anticipate and wear a thin T-neck but no heavy shirt or jacket. If it is cold I put a vest on over the T-neck. I wear dickies or T-neck a lot because of my crikety neck.