Winterize in Southeast.

[mlawrence17]

I just built my first pool this past July. And I followed the startup and balancing procedures from this site and everything worked perfect. But now that the water is too cold to swim (at least for me. The dog still gets in!) I've turned the pump down to run about 4 hours a day and dropped the Intellichlor SWG down to 20%. I wasn't planning on blowing out the lines or covering the pool. I was just going to do what I had been doing.....just a lot less frequently. My pump (Intelliflo variable speed) has a built in freeze protection that will make the pump kick on when the temp drops to freezing. So I should be good there. But I still have some questions.

Should I still try to maintain the same chemical levels thru the winter? Chlorine 3-5, PH 7.5-7.8, TA 60-80, CH 250-350, CYA 70-80? Or don't I need to worry about that until the water warms back up?

Should I remove the SWG completely and put in the dummy cell?

How often should I run the pump?

 

[Bama Rambler]

If you're not going to cover or shut the pool down, then you need to just keep on keeping on. Run the pump enough to keep the pool clean. A couple of hours a day should do it. You should maintain the levels like you normally do. It will be much easier in the cool weather but you still need to keep them adjusted.