Winterize Intex EasySet Inflatable Ring Type?

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y_not

y_not

0
Jul 24, 2012
1,084
Redmond, OR
I have the inflatable ring type Intex pool, it's in my sig.

Here's my question, I live in a place that can potentially get lots of snow in the winter, not like Colorado or anything, not at this elevation, but we can get a few feet accumulation of snow at a time. We get; ice, hoar frost, super cold winds, minus 30-40 windchill at times and our temps can avg. down into the single digits, sometimes as low as minus 3-10. I'd say it more commonly and consistently hits +8 to +12deg in the coldest months of the winter.

We just haven't been very consistent lately, global warming ya know. ;)

I read in the Intex literature that you can't leave the pool up if it hits freezing levels, as it can damage the vinyl.

What are your thoughts on this?
Will the cold really damage it?

Also, if I can leave it up, I have read about dropping the water level below the skimmer inlet hose, but if I did that, the pool would only be half full and that would be bad, it'd probably be torn to bits by the wind.

Lastly, my cover that came with it, of which I don't have the money for anything else, is a vinyl cover /w a few holes in it for ventilation. Kinda dumb, I know, but that's what they gave me.

Should I stuff a beach ball or 2 underneath it so the snow and melt can roll off of it?
It likes to snow here, then melt a bit under the intense sun during the day and then refreeze at night. Makes for some lovely ice everywhere!!
 
How would the soft sides on this be any different than a standard liner in a metal/PVC frame AGP?

Or are you referring to the inflatable ring?

It'd be nice if I could find a way to just leave it up, as we dug a big area out in the yard & leveled it out, if we remove it, then I have to figure out how to cover it with a tarp and keep it there to avoid erosion from all the winter muck. :|

My main concern is what the winter cold will do to the vinyl, I can keep the ice off of the ring /w the cover, which goes over the ring and straps around the bottom like a hair net/drawstring kind of thing.
 
The ring isn't as rigid as the liner. Seems as it would become brittle from the cold. What did you have under the pool for ground cover? When I had my easy set, we left the ground bare, with no I'll effects. I, too, think taking it down is the best option. The worry about the ring is greater than the ground issue, IMO.
 
Yeah, the ring is clearly not as thick, nor quite the same vinyl as the sidewalls or base.
But it has proven itself as EXTREMELY durable and tough, we had the Std. Poodle in there, trying to get him used to swimming, the poor dog fell in my aunt's 40,000gal pool when he thought the pool cover was solid and just went tearing out across it. Sunk right down into the water, and it was coooooollllldddddddd, like 50's probably. He didn't much like that.

Think it scared him of the water, so even though he loves water, getting in the pool is another story.
Anyway, so we were working with him here to get him to swim and he ended up clawing up the ring before I could catch him and get a noodle back under his legs so he'd quit spazing.
Well, I thought the ring was a goner, but it held, I was sure he poked a hole in it, but he just made a big dent in her, a near puncture wound and it just bounced back after a bit. Now there's just any itty, bitty, barely noticeable dimple there.
I was SHOCKED!! :shock:

As far as what's under the pool, it's just leveled dirt. Not even compacted, well not with a machine or tamper, we just used our feet and stomped while walking like a duck. ;)
We just tore out the grass there in a ring, then dug down and leveled it out, it was a 4" difference from high>low.
I'm just concerned about all the water from the snow turning into mud and making this big mess that'll get tracked in to the house.
Cleaning poodle feet from snow & mud is a time consuming job. Often we have to throw him in the tub because they're just nearly BLACK with dirt and mud when he goes running out there @ 30+ mph. They don't have fur, they have hair like us, curly, like some of us. So hence you can't just wipe it off!

I was just wondering if anyone in a cold winter climate had left one of these up over the winter or not.
 
I have a similar setup to yours. I would say take it down. You can go to any home store and get a roll of plastic sheeting to lay down on the bare dirt. Place some 2x4s or rocks around the perimiter and down the middle and it won't go anywhere. I've been doing that for 4 years with no problems.

I have the same cover as yours also, i just duct tape the holes, seems to work good.
 
krazykrames said:
I have a similar setup to yours. I would say take it down. You can go to any home store and get a roll of plastic sheeting to lay down on the bare dirt. Place some 2x4s or rocks around the perimiter and down the middle and it won't go anywhere. I've been doing that for 4 years with no problems.

I have the same cover as yours also, i just duct tape the holes, seems to work good.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good idea, I was thinking something along those lines anyway.
There's a duct tape that holds up better in the elements, the adhesive doesn't break down.
I haven't even unfolded my cover from the box, how many holes are in it?

We're going to have to do some rock removal anyway, there's some little rocks that are kinda pocking through, so we're going to have to screen them out. We have very sandy soil here, it still has dirt in it, but it has a ton of sand and no clay at all.

Another concern I had with taking it down each year was all the folding and creasing of the vinyl & pvc, I am concerned that might cause weak spots, or tears from the creases.
 
I drained ours (I live in Arkansas - we might get snow 1 day, but it will be gone the next). But then again, ours had a HUMONGOUS bulge in it that seemed to be growing. I'm pretty sure our ground wasn't completely level, but the bulge was on the high side, which made no sense. You could see the squares at the bottom stretched into rectangles. We are trashing ours and will get something bigger next year.
 

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Ouch, what a drag. I'm sorry to hear that.
That totally doesn't sound right at all. I wonder if maybe it had a defective liner, or if someone/something hit it and stretched it somehow.

What are you going to replace it with?
I'm going to be replacing mine as soon as I can afford it. Don't get me wrong, I love it, it's really a great little pool, but I want something bigger some day. Deeper too!

Digging isn't really an option here, unless you have money to burn, waaayyyyy too many rocks, big ones, some nearly the size of a VW Beetle. Not to mention they have to be drilled and blasted here, plus there's a layer of lava bedrock, many feet thick in places, others more or less, it's like a sheet of strata.
So AGP is the only real way to fly here.
 
Just a guess from memory on the number of holes in the cover, maybe 8 about half way to the center of the cover and 4 more in the center. Pretty small holes, about the size of a quarter.

I've had good luck with not having any problems folding and creasing the pool. After putting it up and taking it down 4 times there hasn't been any tears or weak spots. I always do it when the weather is warmer, I'm guessing it might get a little stiff if it's cold out.
 
I ive in Ohio and I was wondering the exact same thing...Is it ok to leave it up all winter long? The instructions that came in my box does not say what to do with it in the winter. I have th caps that screw over the intake and outake holes. I was planning to remove the pump and saltwater system to store in the basement. I am not too worried about the vinyl sides since other soft side pools with the PVC piping are vinyl too. My only concern is the inflatable ring. Will it survive the winter?? The cover will be over it so technically it should be protected. The water should move upwards as it freezes since the whole top is open so the sides bursting should not be an issue, right??
 
Welcome to TFP canman13! :wave:

I actually did do it last year. Left it up nearly the whole winter.
Didn't seem to hurt it any and got a decent bit of snow and some ice formed, maybe about 1/2" thick.
At one point it warmed up quite a bit so I started to take it down, maybe in late November, but I didn't finish and just left it with about a foot of water in it, all winter until about March or April.
Got all nasty as it started warming up here and there. The whole intent was to take it down, so I never winterized it, not put a cover on, but it got away from me due to health reasons.

Aside from that, you just have to deal with that pesky ring as the air temp fluctuates. As the colder it gets, the less volume the air inside the ring occupies, so you have to pump it up. Not because It's leaking, but due to gas expansion and contraction from temp changes. So be sure you don't overfill it, allowing for expansion as it warms, or it'll pop/explode.

Honestly though, I don't think I ever messed with the ring last winter, short of filling it up a bit at the start to compensate for the extreme temp drop from It's summer air level.

I have the same struggle during the summer anyway, as our night temps even during July are seldom less than a 20F difference to the daytime high. Right now they're as much as 40. We see swings, not uncommonly so of up to 50-55F here in the high desert.
It actually gets to be less of a swing as winter hits and progresses. But well still get those abnormally hit days and that's when you really gotta watch it.

My rule is to never fill it to the point that it has no give to the ring during the hotest part of the day on the hotest days of that part of the season. By always leaving a buffer, I can fill it a little more at night when It's 50-60F out, without fear of it popping when it hits into the 80s the next day.

I have mastered this art pretty well and only have to drain/top it off in the summer months about 1x a month or less. Mainly I do it so that silly "over the ring" skimmer doesn't rise too high at night from the loose ring pressure and suck air by morning.
When that starts happening a lot, like right now, I just shut the pump off at night, readjust the skimmer in the morning, drain the air from the pump cart housing, then fire it up.

I will add that after I scrubbed all the algae off of it, and cleaned some gunk off the bottom, I then folded it up for a few more months while it warmed up. When I finally patched the bottom from the poor surface it was on, then set it up. That ring had 2x - 1/8" long splits in it, leaking like a sieve. They were right aling crease marks from where it had been folded up in the spring. Prior to that it held air like a champ.
So I feel it was from being folded, loosley I might add, during storage for 3-4 mo.

Those holes patched up beautifully with Intex's included clear vinyl, self adhering patch material, of which I cut 2 half dollar sized circular patches from.

So were these holes exacerbated by all that cold, or from Central Oregon's extreme year round temperature fluctuations, or is the pvc just that fussy and it would have happened anyway? I don't know.
 
I have decided I'm going to leave mine up again this year. This time completely full of water, pump removed, over the ring skimmer removed & the inlet + return holes plugged /w the little black plugs Intex gives you.

I'll patch the factory holes in the drawstring style Intex cover as well and just leave it covered, keeping an eye on the ring as mentioned.
When the leaves start to come down like crazy, I'll cover it! As that was the absolute WORST last year keeping up with that.
If it dies, well, whatever, it's getting replaced. But I'm sure it'll be juuuuust fiiinnneee!! :mrgreen:

Others, feel free to report on your experiences with this style of Intex pool.
 
Hi Everyone,

Just want to say I have left my easy up pool up through the winter the last 2 years here in the mountains of Western N. Carolina. It has frozen, been covered with snow and gone through large fluctuations in temp with no problems. I stack three large truck inner tubes and lash them together to float in the middle of the pool. Then I place a large tarp over them and stake it down all around. Seems to work pretty well and will do it again this year.
 
obg said:
Hi Everyone,

Just want to say I have left my easy up pool up through the winter the last 2 years here in the mountains of Western N. Carolina. It has frozen, been covered with snow and gone through large fluctuations in temp with no problems. I stack three large truck inner tubes and lash them together to float in the middle of the pool. Then I place a large tarp over them and stake it down all around. Seems to work pretty well and will do it again this year.
Click to expand...

I will try this thank you.
 
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