Winterizing Questions

[Rob]

Hello,

I live in Canada and have a few questions on winterizing. We bought the house a couple of years ago, and the first winter, the pool was put to bed by the previous owner. They put two tarps (joined in the middle) attached to bungie cords across the whole thing. The setup was held taught, but lots of things slipped between the two tarps.

I've looked at some of the alternatives for covers. Safety covers look really nice, but we get several feet of snow here. Isn't there a danger that the weight of all that snow will cause it to collapse in? I'm also leary of getting one of the standard old covers since we really don't have anywhere to clean it off come spring, the pool is bigger than anywhere we would have to clean it!

My second question is about draining down below the returns. The previous owner didn't. He just attached a shop vac on blow to the returns, then forced a plug on top. That seems fairly risky to me, but the returns are quite low on the wall (our PB even mentioned this), about 2.5 feet down, and we'd have to drain quite a bit of water to be below.

Any suggestions?

 

[JasonLion]

When there is going to be snow on a safety cover you are supposed to lower the tension on the springs until it sits on the surface of the water. Then the water helps hold up the snow load and it will be fine.

There are many different ways to deal with each aspect of closing. Blowing out and plugging the returns while the returns are under water works as long as the plugs make a good seal. Adding anti-freeze to the lines provides a second level of protection. As long as you leave the water level high enough so that the ice won't get down to the returns it should be alright. Draining below the returns would give you a third line of protection, which is nice but not always practical.