Draining water from an inground pool...

[mkelley]

Based on a wide variety of things I think I need to empty out a substantial amount of water from my (13,000 gallons) gunnite diamondbrite finish inground pool. Living in Florida I've never had to do this (only drain a little rainwater from time to time) and I just want to make sure I'm not going to hurt anything.

If I connect the hose to the skimmer and put it into the pool (to keep the pump from running dry or at least getting lots of air after the pool goes below skimmer level) is there anything else I need to be aware of? I don't intend to leave the pool low for long -- going to immediately add water as soon as I get it down about halfway -- but I also don't want to make a mistake here.

The ground is pretty wet (we've had lots of rain the last few weeks) if that makes any difference (naturally the pool is surrounded by a concrete lanai). We have a very porous ground surface here in Florida -- water goes through it live a sieve.

Or am I worrying about nothing?

 

[JasonLion]

Draining your pool completely can cause serious problems if you have a high water table. If you don't know the height of your water table I wouldn't drain more than 12-18" below the skimmer.

 

[mkelley]

Um, thanks.

Bummer, though -- I have so many issues with my water (high solids count and other things) that this is going to be a problem. 18 inches at a time is going to be a real bummer (because I'm going to get into diminishing returns adding and draining each time -- might only be able to do this once or twice before it won't be worth doing at all).

However, here in Florida it's quite possible we do have a high water table -- but I can look around and see our "lakes" (I live in Lake Country) within our development and they look at least three or four feet down. But I wouldn't want to do anything which will even have a chance of hurting my pool (too expensive to contemplate).

But I do appreciate the response. I guess I'll just have to live with it...

 

[robrinker]

I believe there is a method where you can place plastic or something on the surface of your pool and fill water on top of that while simultaneously draining the water from under the plastic. I just remember reading out it, I don't remember more details than that. Perhaps someone else can chime in and point to a post that describes this and speak to if this is feasible.

 

[JasonLion]

Yes, if you are trying to replace about 90% or more of your water and have a high water table you can get a giant piece of plastic and use it to keep the new water separate from the old water. The plastic has to be significantly larger than the pool surface. Agricultural supply places sell large sheets of plastic and sometimes you can find them other places.

Below 90% replacement or so, depending on your costs for water, it is less expensive to do many small replacements.