When to open in Central PA?

[mkenyon2]

We live in Cleona, PA, Lebanon County. We've been having 70 and 80 degree days. This is our first year with the pool. (We bought our house w/ the pool in October and the previous owners had closed it up.)

I'm a little eager (can you tell) to get it opened up. When I was younger, I helped open my grandmother's in-ground pool, and my parents had a small above ground pool, but I was never in charge. So... I'm kind of rusty.

How do you know when to open up your pool?

(We have a solar cover, but no heater.)

 

[JasonLion]

The usual rule of thumb is to open when the water temperature is between 50 and 60 degrees and there is no longer a possibility of a hard freeze. Opening earlier usually means an easier opening but more money spent running the pump. The longer you wait, the higher the chance of the pool turning green and requiring an algae fight on opening.

 

[mkenyon2]

How do you check the temp w/ the cover on... just pull back a corner?

 

[dlduvall]

Last year when I started to get the "itch" to open the pool, I went to walmart and bought a cheap thermometer. I tied a piece of rope to it, loosened a cover spring and tossed it under the cover. Then I could pull it up with the rope to check temp until we were ready to open. When the temp got above 50 degrees, we opened the pool. (No algae! :-D ) As for this year, we are opening next weekend here in WV, since that is my weekend off and the weather is nice enough to get the deck cleaned and set up beforehand.

 

[AnnaK]

Hi mkenyon2,

We're just a few miles east and a little north of you. We opened our AGP on March 20 this year. "Opening" for us involves hooking up the plumbing and adding water; we don't cover the pool over winter.

You can open as soon as all the ice is thawed so that you can get water circulating to mix in chems, filter, hook up the vacuum and all that good stuff. The drawback can be when it gets down into the twenties on some nights. When that happens, we just run the pump on those cold nights.

 

[X-PertPool]

the busiest week for pool openings in NEPA is the week before memorial day, that should give you an idea of when people usually open.