I live in central Iowa and our winters can be a bit brutal and the pool water seems to freeze solid during January and February. I need to replace my winter cover and decided to continue to use a solid cover, rather than the mesh and place some inner tubes under it for ease of keeping any water from rain or snow melt around the perimeter. I use a leaf net in the fall and the spring to cut down on the debris from my neighbor's trees. I am still researching solid covers and have been reading some of the forums on them, but that isn't my main question.
My question involves lowering vs not lowering the water level in the pool. I have always lowered the water below the inlet/skimmer and would love to avoid the additional cost of adding it back in the spring. I have been looking at a skimmer plug (not the tupperware like cover) for a Doughboy Skimmer and also plugging the inlet opening. I would still remove all of the hoses and do my normal winterizing of the equipment. I see the pros of doing this, but what are the cons? I mentioned it to a local pool company and they were cautioning against it because of the need to have space for the ice build up but I couldn't figure out why this would be an issue. I plan on lowering the water to lowest "add" mark on the skimmer but before I commit to this I wanted to run it by this forum to gain some insight.
Thank you!
My question involves lowering vs not lowering the water level in the pool. I have always lowered the water below the inlet/skimmer and would love to avoid the additional cost of adding it back in the spring. I have been looking at a skimmer plug (not the tupperware like cover) for a Doughboy Skimmer and also plugging the inlet opening. I would still remove all of the hoses and do my normal winterizing of the equipment. I see the pros of doing this, but what are the cons? I mentioned it to a local pool company and they were cautioning against it because of the need to have space for the ice build up but I couldn't figure out why this would be an issue. I plan on lowering the water to lowest "add" mark on the skimmer but before I commit to this I wanted to run it by this forum to gain some insight.
Thank you!