Closing 15 ft. Intex AGP for Winter

[Scoot95]

I live in Northern NJ and this is the first time I owned the Intex inflatable AGP. Now that it is time to close it, I realize I have a problem. When I filled it up, it was a bit tilted. It worked fine this summer, but it was definitely off (will level the ground better next year). Well, the plugs to drain the water are touching the ground, so there is no way to open them to connect the hose. I would rather not flood my backyard (plus since I use a salt-water system, it would kill our grass).

Are there companies out there that come and drain the pool by sucking the water out over the top?

Thanks!

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!

You should be able to use a garden hose to drain it.

Hook the hose to a faucet and put then end under water in the pool. Turn the hose on and let it run until bubbles stop. Unscrew the hose from the faucet, stick a finger in the end of the hose to keep it from draining and place the end someplace lower than the surface of the water in the pool. The lower the better. The water will run out of the pool slowly as long as you keep the end of the hose submerged.

 

[Dtmos01]

I dumped my salt water into my grass and it did not kill it

 

[singingpond]

The arrangement described by JohnT is called a siphon, if you want to Google for further descriptions. It's a tremendously useful principle to be familiar with in general.

And, even when this type of pool is perfectly level, the drain fittings are typically several inches above ground level... so, once you've drained as much as will go out of the drain fitting, you're still standing there looking at those last couple inches, which translates into many gallons. Getting a siphon going, being sure to keep the suction end of the hose submerged in the pool water as long as possible, is one way to deal with (most of) the remnant.

Since you say your pool is a bit tilted, you should have no problem finding a spot at least slightly downhill of the lowest point on the bottom of the pool. It's true that the drain end of your siphon (the end of the hose that's out on the ground) only has to be lower than the surface of the pool water for this to work. However, since you want the water surface in your pool to end up as close to the ground level as possible (i.e. you want the pool empty), make sure the drain end of the siphon is lower than the bottom of the pool, if at all possible.

 

[Scoot95]

Thank you so much for your suggestions. How long do you estimate it will take to empty the pool by siphoning it?

 

[DarrelB]

You remember how long it took to fill with a hose? Pretty close to the same to empty it (several hours)

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Please add your pools info to your signature as outlined here - - > http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/165-getting-started

You remember how long it took to fill with a hose? Pretty close to the same to empty it (several hours)

Plus a little more as the siphon won't have the pressure behind it to move as much water as fast unless you have a really big (vertical) drop from the pool to where you place the end of the hose. You can however use multiple hoses to speed it up or even the bigger hose for vacuuming if it's long enough. The salt content might be a bit much for delicate flowers but for plain grass lawns it's usually not a problem.