We are snowbirds who live in Florida from Sept to early May then return to Pennsylvania for the summer. We just bought an above ground pool for our Florida home. My question is what do we do with the Florida pool when we leave in early May until we return in September? Summer weather in Florida is hot, humid and often rainy. Do we shut down the pool and "winterize" it? Should we leave it running and hire a pool service to watch it? Any other suggestions? Thanks, Dave
Pool Closing?
- Thread starter Dave2590
- Start date
If you winterize the pool in Florida you will most likely have to deal with a green pool when you get back due to water temp (want water temp to be below 60 degrees when winterizing and to stay there), lack of circulation, and lack of Chrlorine. At that point you will have to SLAM the pool to get it back to normal.
If you hire a pool service you will want to make sure you understand what method they will be using to maintain the pool so you know what they are putting into it. If you choose this method hopefully you can find someone that will test correctly and use liquid Chlorine/bleach instead of tabs.
Another options is drain the pool before you leave and refill when you come back.
Although you will have to determine what will be the cost associated with each option. Slamming most likely just the cost of bleach and maybe some Acid for ph if you need it. Don't know the cost of a pool service but most likely over $100 per month. For refilling it you will need water and chemicals to balance such as bleach, maybe acid, and CYA. Where I am at cost me $125 for close to 25,000 gallons of water. I am lucky that my water company will waive the sewer fees if I call them and tell them I am filling up a pool.
If you hire a pool service you will want to make sure you understand what method they will be using to maintain the pool so you know what they are putting into it. If you choose this method hopefully you can find someone that will test correctly and use liquid Chlorine/bleach instead of tabs.
Another options is drain the pool before you leave and refill when you come back.
Although you will have to determine what will be the cost associated with each option. Slamming most likely just the cost of bleach and maybe some Acid for ph if you need it. Don't know the cost of a pool service but most likely over $100 per month. For refilling it you will need water and chemicals to balance such as bleach, maybe acid, and CYA. Where I am at cost me $125 for close to 25,000 gallons of water. I am lucky that my water company will waive the sewer fees if I call them and tell them I am filling up a pool.
Its a regular above ground pool....Sharkline Quest 18X33 so about 15,000 gallons.
I'd agree with Rocco. It wont do any good to winterize it since it more than likely will be green when you get back because of the temperatures. Hiring someone to watch over it for 4 months would probably not be very cost effective. If they used trichlor tabs for chlorine like may of them do, you could still end up having a green pool when you got back along with a sky high CYA level causing you to have to do a partial drain and refill anyway.
I would say drain most of the water out leaving a foot or two of water in it and cover it up. Just deal with it when you get back.
I would say drain most of the water out leaving a foot or two of water in it and cover it up. Just deal with it when you get back.
I thought that once a pool was drained it would collapse in on itself. True or not? If it did I would not be here to deal with it.
My uncles above ground pool has been completely drained for years now and is still standing although the liner is ruined and there are some weeds growing in the bottom. I would at least leave enough water in it to keep the liner seated. You could leave all the water in it too if you wanted. Just dont completely drain it.
Read yesterday that draining the pool would cause the liner to shrink within days so I think I'll just leave the water in it and shut the pool down and deal with it when I get back to Florida. Maybe I'll drain it and immediately refill it when we get back. Either that or SLAM it. Thanks for all the help. Great forum !
If it was me, i would just leave it and SLAM it when you get back. It might take you a week to 2 weeks to get it back in shape.
Or you could let a neighbor "USE" your pool in exchange for dumping bleach in it. If its like mine, it will only take about 4 or 5 cups of bleach a night. Or if nobody uses it, every 2 or 3 nights.
I read a post on here over the summer where one user just dumped a gallon of 10% in his neighbors pool every Saturday evening. Pretty much just brought the FC up to shock level and slowly let it drift back down over the week, then did the same thing the next week.
If you did that, it would only cost you about 15 gallons of Bleach and then you could stabilize everything when you got back in Sept and maintain it correctly then. Not saying this would work in your case, but it might.
Or you could let a neighbor "USE" your pool in exchange for dumping bleach in it. If its like mine, it will only take about 4 or 5 cups of bleach a night. Or if nobody uses it, every 2 or 3 nights.
I read a post on here over the summer where one user just dumped a gallon of 10% in his neighbors pool every Saturday evening. Pretty much just brought the FC up to shock level and slowly let it drift back down over the week, then did the same thing the next week.
If you did that, it would only cost you about 15 gallons of Bleach and then you could stabilize everything when you got back in Sept and maintain it correctly then. Not saying this would work in your case, but it might.
Do not drain the pool! Either hire a pool company to maintain it or close it n fix when you get back.
