First time winterizing pool ??'s

[onestout]

New pool owner this year and it's my first time winterizing. I drained the pool below the light, not sure if this is needed or not but better safe the first year, it must have drained almost half the pool to get it that low. Does anyone leave the water level above the light in a region that will get a hard freeze? I found it to be faster to remove the lines from my sand filter and blow out the skimmer line and returns separate. I poured about 5 gallons into the return lines near the filter, I wasn't able to get any into the returns, there is a 90 bend there and I couldn't get the hose down it. I took the skimmer basket out and put the cover on it and the pool cover went over it also and then poured a gallon of antifreeze down the pipe. Why do people plug the hole? Where would the water come from to freeze?

Summary of questions:
Do I need to drain below light in a hard freeze zone?
Do I need to put AF down the returns themselves?
What about all the wet sand in the filter?

This is a start, hopefully this takes care of it.

Thanks for the help

Michael

 

[bdex]

Ok. I am in central Illinois, so definitely a hard freeze zone.

I have an auto cover so I need to keep water up to the middle of the skimmer or so.

I plug skimmer, blow out skimmer line towards pump (which is below the water level). Add 5-6 gallons of antifreeze and hit withe blower quickly with valve opened. Close valve and put freeze protector in skimmer. Done.

For returns I close valve. Hook up blower at pump side (with a rubber coupler/make fitting thing I rigged up). Turn on blower and open valve. Closest return starts blowing bubbles like crazy. Cap off. Next one blows bubbles. Cap off. Last one starts blowing bubbles. Cap off with a gizmo one way valve. Turn off blower. Remove hose from blower. Pour 5-6 gallons of antifreeze in line. Hook up blower and give a quick hit until wife sees just a slight hue of pink (antifreeze) out of one way valve. Close valve. Done.

Remove light and attach weight to hold on bottom. So it does not damage auto cover.

You do not need to drain below light, just remove so freeze will not blow out wet niche.

If you got all of the water out of the lines there is nothing to freeze. So no. If you are 100% sure. If not, see above for how to get antifreeze in lines.

I set valve to winterize. Remove all hoses and remove drain plug. I then take shop vac (same tool as blower for me) and try to suck as much water out of filter as I can. Leave plug removed and valve on winterize and gravity will handle the rest.




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[onestout]

Thanks for the reply. I think next year I'll be braver and leave the water into the light socket after the light is removed. I removed my light and put it on the deck under the diving board. The water is a couple feet under my skimmer so it should stay dry, I blew it out and then added 1 gallon of AF, I think I'll go back and plug the hole just to make sure no mice or anything get in there.

On the main drain in the bottom of the pool I assume I have to let that pipe freeze?? There is no way to plug it off, the water in the pipe would have to be at the same level as the pool and AF would just dilute into the pool.