Closing IG Pool in northern California

[cody21]

I've been reading through the plethora of topics on Closing and I'm not sure how I will proceed - probably around end of October or once the solar no longer warms the pool. The previous owner's pool service gave me some basic instructions: Drain the Solar, leaving valves open; Shock pool; leave cover OFF & plan to net the leaves a couple times a day as trees shed; continue to run the pump and filter every day - just a shorter length of time; drain off water as the rains fill it.

OK, based on that, would you agree ? We never get enough freezing temps to be concerned about cracking the pool - more typically, the coldest months seldom get below high 30's to lwo 40's ... How much testing & adjusting can I expect to be doing? How much should I run the pump/filter each day (currently about 8 hours).

Oh, and if there is already a link for "warmer weather" closing, please point me to that ... or maybe there should be one created for us in those climates.

thanks

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Are you sure you even need to close it? Unless you get prolonged below-freezing temps, there's no need to. You'll have to manage the chemistry all winter, but there'll be much lower FC use as the temperature drops. I think it sure looks nice to keep it open all year too...

 

[chem geek]

I live in San Rafael in norther CA 20 minutes north of San Francisco and I don't think you will need to close your pool. My pool water temp in the winter doesn't get below 45ºF so nowhere near freezing. You do have to drain your solar panels and I usually have our solar company do that, remove caps, etc. I run the pool during the winter, but with less pump run time. Chlorine usage drops to 1 ppm FC every 2 weeks but I have a mostly opaque electric safety cover. If your pool is exposed to the sun, it will still lose chlorine every day from the sun, but because days are shorter, sun at lower angle, and more cloudy days, it's less loss than in the summer even if you don't use a cover. If you think you will have freezing nights, you can always run the pump overnight mostly to protect the small amount of piping that is above the ground in the pump room/shed (some automation controls have freeze protection that sense temperature and automatically turn on the pump).

 

[cody21]

Thanks guys ... PS - @chemgeek - I know San Rafael very well ... you're just 45 mins from Lafayette, so we have very similar weather. So follow-up question: Do you put any PolyQuat 60 in it in the winter? Or simply the "usual" treatment like you do in the summer swimming season? We were told to NOT cover it and shorten the pump/filter time - how many hours per day are you running it? We currently run iut 8 hours per day for swimming. Thanks !!!!

 

[chem geek]

No Polyquat 60. I just maintain chlorine over the winter. During the summer, the pump is on for 8 hours, but at varying speed depending on whether solar is on (48 GPM) or off (26 GPM). The pool sweep is also on for 2 hours at night (15 GPM through a dedicated line). During the winter, the pump gets cut back to 4 hours, but with no solar so only 26 GPM so about 1/3rd the turnover rate of summer.

I'm not sure why you were told not to cover the pool. If you use an opaque cover, you'll significantly cut down your chlorine usage. Otherwise, you'll still lose chlorine to sunlight, albeit more slowly than in the summer.

 

[cody21]

We have a 1/2 HP pump - but I honestly have no idea how many GPM it's pushing through. How do you figure that out? Anyway, yea, the pool service lady said to just leave it uncovered over winter months. The cover we have is NOT a 'tight' cover. It is just a simple Solar blue cover and in fact does not cover the poll 100% - there is actually about 2" long ways that doesn't meet the edge of the pool, and there's about 3 feet at the end that is open ... But we do have Holes along all the decking tiles that at some point were able to attach a full cover; somehow.

So is it the opinion of the TFP experts that we should fully cover our pool in winter when closing? Or is a partial cover (like what I have) OK? The biggest issue I can see is LEAVES that come off the trees will need to be constantly swept from the pool water since it's not fully/tightly covered. What about RAIN water? Won't that somehow collapse the cover? (certainly probably will the one we currently have.)

Thanks so much ... learning and mushing through my 1st winter ...

 

[UnderWaterVanya]

If you have dedicated anchors in the decking - you can install a "safety cover" that in theory can be accidentally walked on by pets or even you safely.

This won't keep water out - but it does keep leaves etc out.