Intex Ultra Frame Owners

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DianeF1

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Aug 12, 2011
92
Augusta, Kansas
What are your plans for winter? What is the size of your pool?

I know we plan on leaving our 16X32 rectangle pool up this winter. Drain below the filter. Put the ladder, SWG and the filter in the shed.

We don't have a cover (the wind destroyed our original cover the first winter). How can we cover our rectangle that has legs that lean out just enough to catch the wind so that the wind doesn't distroy yet another cover. Or do I just let it be and let the dirt from the dirt road fill in the bottom of the pool.
 
Winters here in SC are mild by comparison to some.
Having said that...
I have a summer escapes 18' x 52" that is going to be left up for the 4th winter. I just drain enough water to drop below the skimmer and I store the pump and sand filter in the barn through the winter.

I don't cover- but I will use the leaf skimmer 3-4 times through the fall & winter to stay ahead of the mess. I don't test through the winter but I have found that 1/2 gal bleach/month is enough to keep anything from gowing. I pour it in and stir aropund a little with the leaf skimmer.

In spring I get setup ahead of the pollen to not fight that mess.
 
I also plan on leaving my 16' round up all winter, Oh yeah and also don't have any plans yet on how to do it. I still have the original cover that came with pool have not even looked at it yet but I am sure it will not be good enough to last through the winter. I will also remove pump and PVC plumbing and I guess drain below inlet. The only thing that bothers me is that the inlet is almost half way down on the pool, hoping that does not weaken it too much.

Brian
 
18x48, left it up last winter drained below the lowest inlet, no cover, just added bleach occasionally when it wasn't frozen. I also threw some inflatable rings in the water to help with the expansion of it freezing, don't know if it really helped. I did have to drop a sump pump in a few times to drain some water out. Plan on doing the same thing this winter
 
well, i went forward with my idea of the pvc cover support system to create a domed cover so i wont (hopefully) have water on top of cover. i have 9 3/4 inch pvc bows that go from one side of pool to the other with a 5 inch pvc center support. new winter cover will go over that. been saving all my bleach bottles for cover weights to hang off sides with bungee cords to keep cover taunt. unless we get a lot of snow (doubtful) it should hold up fine.

ill post some pics when its time. ive got all the support bows and center cut ready to assemble. ive test fitted most of them, should be good to go.

i will drain below water outet and hayward skimmer. i have a cap that i will screw on inlet after i disconnect hoses, so i will only have to drain 12-16 inches of water. pump will go in shed. sand filter will be left out, but bagged and well protected. i may periodically toss in some bleach if it starts going green. winter here in Oklahoma is usually mild, and they are predicting a warm winter like last year.
 
blaib said:
Do they offer any kind of screw on plugs for the inlet and outlet of the pump fittings so that pool does not have to be drained down do much?
Click to expand...


i have the "cap" that came on my 2650 sand filter for the drain on the 6 way valve. when i hard plumbed my pool, i saved all my intex hoses (had 4 of them since 2 more came with 2650 pump) and glued / banded them all together to make a backwash hose that I buried. since I used intex hoses, they screwed right onto the drain output, :party: so i dont use the cap on the drain, i just leave the backwash hose connected all the time.

that same cap for the six way valve, also fits onto the outside of my intex inlet. so i plan on draining pool ~12 inches or so to get it below outlet, disconnecting hose on inlet, capping the inlet on the outside of the pool with the cap, and buttoning up the pool. i dont see how ice will hurt the inlet. again, im in OK where the winters are very mild. if i was in a harsher winter zone I would drain it more.

so to answer your question, YES, there are "plugs" you can use, if you can get a hold of a couple of intex 2650 sandfilter drain caps.


EDIT: here ya go! for 1.77 i may order a couple extras myself!

http://www.intexcorp.com/index.php/repl ... 11226.html
 
I drained my pool and packed it away last year and I plan to do the same this year. My pool is relatively small so it's not a huge chore. It takes a half a day to put it away and about the same to set it back up. I don't trust leaving it out during storm season and winter. Last year Hurricane Sandy knocked some large branches down where the pool had been, so luckily it was away and avoided any damage. This year I'm not happy with the sand layer under my pool so I need an excuse to drain it anyway. I plan to put foam sheets under it next year, and pavers under the legs.
 
gtnos said:
well, i went forward with my idea of the pvc cover support system to create a domed cover so i wont (hopefully) have water on top of cover. i have 9 3/4 inch pvc bows that go from one side of pool to the other with a 5 inch pvc center support. new winter cover will go over that. been saving all my bleach bottles for cover weights to hang off sides with bungee cords to keep cover taunt. unless we get a lot of snow (doubtful) it should hold up fine.

ill post some pics when its time. ive got all the support bows and center cut ready to assemble. ive test fitted most of them, should be good to go.

i will drain below water outet and hayward skimmer. i have a cap that i will screw on inlet after i disconnect hoses, so i will only have to drain 12-16 inches of water. pump will go in shed. sand filter will be left out, but bagged and well protected. i may periodically toss in some bleach if it starts going green. winter here in Oklahoma is usually mild, and they are predicting a warm winter like last year.
Click to expand...

I would certainly be interested in seeing this when you get it done. I bought a heavy duty 20'x20' tarp to cover mine with and plan to use an old ladder set in the middle to prop it up so water will drain off. But I have thought about a dome-like skeleton underneath.
 

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i originally was going to put bows only on every other leg. after assembling a few and seeing distance between them, i changed plan to put a bow on every leg for max support.

bows are 11 foot long. (i basically cut 1 foot off each 3/4 inch pipe) i used the extra foot from each pipe for the T fittings.

i have yet to fully assemble frame and drop cover on it. im pretty confident it will hold as expected. again, we get mild winters here in OK so im mainly trying to deflect rain. if you expect a lot of snow, i would definately pony up the $$$ for schedule 40 for the weight.

keep in mind, NONE of this pvc is glued. it will assemble, dissemble easily, yet should be firm enough to support cover.

you probably could store your ladder in the pool and tie bows to that instead of using a center pipe with this system. it just needs a center support, doesnt matter what it is.
 
Last year I left my Intex 15 by 48 metal frame up . The original plan was to drain completely and remove every thing but the piece that goes through the wall. I was going to remove them and put plumber grease on the gaskets hoping that would help them last a bit longer(not sure if that is bad or good but seemed like something worth trying).Then put the cover that came with it on . It gets very windy at my house. After the first windy storm that cover blew off and tore. So the next plan was to take the ladder and place it in the pool standing up and get a tarp and stake it down so the ladder created a high point and the water ran off around the pool. The next storm came and tore that tarp and if flew off. Then when hurricane Sandy was coming I took what I had used to strap down the tarp and just strapped down the pool poles. I plugged it up and it took on about a foot of water and many of the stakes had loosened up. I imagine had I not let it fill up it might have blown away or at least moved from its location. I had never felt wind like that before. The wind at our house is usually double that of the weather report. I imagine the staking was helpful keeping the poles in check. When I filled up this year all poles were within a half inch of there original locations. I removed as leaves as I could and scrubbed the liner a bit. Washed out what I could and filled it up. It took about a weekend to clean up and by the end of the week all my numbers were good and the water was clean. This year I am going to take it down to about a foot, stake the poles down remove everything but the piece that goes through the wall and walk away.
 
raidencmc - Where in SE PA are you? We are outside of Allentown and have the same wind problem. We're constantly chasing things around the yard that blew away and the solar cover has blown off a few times even though I try to make sure there are no air bubbles or areas that are lifted that the wind can get under. It's crazy! I take our Ultra Frame down for the winters as I haven't been brave enough to try to leave it up. We get a lot of snow drifts in our yard from all of the wind, so I get a bit worried about the weight of the snow blowing up against the liner. Of course last year we didn't get much snow, but who knows what this year has in store for us. This year I don't have a choice in taking it down since we are moving and it will go with us, but maybe it's something I will try next year after I get a feel for the drifting snow at the new place and if it will be an issue. Hopefully it won't be as bad since we will no longer be on top of a hill next to a field!
 
I have a 20 Ft. Ultra frame. I will be keeping it completely filled using a cover with a large beach ball or floats underneath. I have :wave: had a 15 ft. steel frame & also an in ground in Fl. Before. We never had a problem keeping the pool completely full in New York or Rhode Island. Just added bleach monthly & ran the filter for 2 to 4 hours daily. We have never disconnected the filter before either & had the above ground for years {moving it from one state to another.}
 
Florida, it stays up all winter because periodically, we can still swim. I always keep the solar cover on and it helps to keep all the leaves out in the Fall.
 

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