I know it's kind of early to be thinking of closing, but now that I am off Baquacil, I wonder if I should think about changing my closing method. I live in North Central Florida. It freezes here at night several times throughout the winter. We have a lot of trees and they drop tons of leaves in the fall, and pollen in the spring.
In the past we have always just topped off the Baquacil levels, added a gallon of oxidizer, removed the ladder, and put a winter cover on. We do not drain water, or really do anything else with the pool through the winter. We don't add chemicals or filter while it's covered, except to turn the pump/filter on overnight when there are freeze warnings.
When it's time to open, it's a mess. We have to siphon water off the cover, drag the leaves off the cover, remove cover, brush & vac, get the water right, reinstall ladder, and get solar blanket on. Dealing with the winter cover is the worst part.
Now I am off Baquacil, doing BBB, and my Intex SWG should be here soon. I have no idea what I need to do differently now. My winter cover and pillow both need replacing if I'm going to use one this year. Would I be better off using a leaf cover instead… or leave the pool open through the winter? We have a PoolSkim return attachment that does a good job of getting the pine needles, but I don't know how well it would do when the BlackJack oaks start dropping their leaves and mess.
Any suggestions on a better method? Pros and cons to leaf net vs. winter cover vs. leaving the pool open?
What do other Florida people do?
In the past we have always just topped off the Baquacil levels, added a gallon of oxidizer, removed the ladder, and put a winter cover on. We do not drain water, or really do anything else with the pool through the winter. We don't add chemicals or filter while it's covered, except to turn the pump/filter on overnight when there are freeze warnings.
When it's time to open, it's a mess. We have to siphon water off the cover, drag the leaves off the cover, remove cover, brush & vac, get the water right, reinstall ladder, and get solar blanket on. Dealing with the winter cover is the worst part.
Now I am off Baquacil, doing BBB, and my Intex SWG should be here soon. I have no idea what I need to do differently now. My winter cover and pillow both need replacing if I'm going to use one this year. Would I be better off using a leaf cover instead… or leave the pool open through the winter? We have a PoolSkim return attachment that does a good job of getting the pine needles, but I don't know how well it would do when the BlackJack oaks start dropping their leaves and mess.
Any suggestions on a better method? Pros and cons to leaf net vs. winter cover vs. leaving the pool open?
What do other Florida people do?
