Adding Chemicals Over the Winter Months

[samt]

I also have a mesh cover and am following a similar process as mentioned above. Our yard has many trees and I would spend an hour every night taking out leaves, so I just throw the cover on in early/mid Sept. Instead of pucks I still use liquid chlorine and just detach a few of the anchors which gives me enough room to add the chlorine via a 2.5 quart pitcher in front of the returns. I run the filter everyone few days just to circulate things or whenever I add chlorine. I have an older loop lock or that's at least what the original owners paper works states, either way lots of light gets through it. Even with it being far from total light blocking my chlorine use around this time of year is less that 1ppm per day. Though the pucks also sound like a good solution, a few will last a long time and the small amount of CYA added will most likely be negated by the water that you remove open totally closing the pool.

On a side note I've had an idea to just rig up a short length of pvc with a 90 degree fitting and a funnel and just shove it under the cover near the the deep end return. This way you would not even need to touch the cover just pour the chlorine into the pipe with the pump running and that's that. I've just been to lazy to actually glue the pvc together.

Smart Idea with the pvc, even using pucks for a month until I remove the pump. The following year I need to add CYA , I run the pump 2 hrs a day but once my supply of pucks are gone I will do something like your doing or just poor it in the skimmer when the pump is running.

 

[uloset]

I'm glad my PVC idea was gone over so well, I've taken so much info from this site it feels good to give some back for once. The other thing I would suggest is to add something, perhaps a small amount of stryofoam to the bottom of the pipe on the ground to keep a slight downward angle going into the pool. If the PVC just lays flat on the ground some chlorine will lay in it and will need to be flushed out with some additional water. This may not be needed though since the straight pipe will slip into the elbow and that extra girth of the 90 degree fitting will put the pipe at somewhat of a downward angle.

 

[tbenton]

Yes I am sure it does feel good to 'give back' and I thank you so much. Closing tomorrow!

quote="uloset"]I'm glad my PVC idea was gone over so well, I've taken so much info from this site it feels good to give some back for once. The other thing I would suggest is to add something, perhaps a small amount of stryofoam to the bottom of the pipe on the ground to keep a slight downward angle going into the pool. If the PVC just lays flat on the ground some chlorine will lay in it and will need to be flushed out with some additional water. This may not be needed though since the straight pipe will slip into the elbow and that extra girth of the 90 degree fitting will put the pipe at somewhat of a downward angle.[/quote]

 

[Sparty1988]

Great info! My question is that we cover our pool in mid-Oct. and open in mid-April with a tarp. Since we live in Central California, the water doesn't freeze. How long should we be running the filter in the winter months (with the tarp on) and it sounds like I need to check the chemicals during the winter months as well? Thanks for the help.

 

[jmastron]

Great info! My question is that we cover our pool in mid-Oct. and open in mid-April with a tarp. Since we live in Central California, the water doesn't freeze. How long should we be running the filter in the winter months (with the tarp on) and it sounds like I need to check the chemicals during the winter months as well? Thanks for the help.

If you're in a similar climate to Sacramento, the water will be below 60 degrees from sometime in November until early March. The thought here is that below 60, algae won't grow, so you can get away with ignoring the chemicals and considering it "closed" if you have a cover. I don't have a cover, and having said that last year (our first with this pool) I did keep everything balanced throughout the winter. It wasn't hard; chlorine demand and PH change was much lower; I only had to put in a gallon of 10% liquid chlorine every ~3 weeks to keep it above the min FC at ~40ppm CYA.

I ran the pump 2 hours a day, but I did turn it off completely for 2+ weeks in December/January because the skimmer was getting clogged and before I found the right rake to scoop all the leaves out of the bottom that were too much for the Polaris to deal with (no cover). No noticeable water issues after doing that, so you could get away with running the pump less. I just liked to tell people that the pool was open and ready to swim...if you were willing to swim in 42 degree water (at the coldest)!