Just watchedPB Close Pool..

[jjdurrant]

Wow, maybe it is worth the $190. He hooked up a compressor and blew out the lines very well. Only had to use a little anti-freeze. I don't see how a shopvac could be as effective. :?

 

[Hotrod30]

Wow, maybe it is worth the $190. He hooked up a compressor and blew out the lines very well. Only had to use a little anti-freeze. I don't see how a shopvac could be as effective. :?

I had the PB that installed my liner close my pool the first time so I know what you mean by a 'little anti-freeze'.

I have closed my pool ever since but I use alot of anti-freeze. I blow the line out first, then use a suction line to get more water out. Then I fill the line with anti-freeze. My longest line is about 50 foot and I put in a little more than 4 gals in that line. The skimmers take 2 gals each. I use 22 gals of anti-freeze to close and I can recover about 20.5 to 21 gals in the Spring.

For me, anti-freeze is cheaper than replacing a line. I would say my growing zone is close to yours; winter of -30 deg. I alway figure that records are made to be broken. My worse fear is -10 or -20 degrees for a few days with no snow cover. Had it once and saw alot of house water lines frozen in the neighborhood. I made sure the dishwasher ran every 4 to 5 hours (even empty) and during the night set it to run on timer. After 3 days of low temps with no snow cover, I turned on low, the hot water in my shop sink, and let it run for a week.

My nextdoor neighbor had a frozen line and call in some guy that had a machine that hooked up where the meter went. A long tube was stuck into the water pipe and hot water was forced into the tube and back out of the water line and recovered into the machine. Very little mess when the ice broke. It cost my neighbor $400 (in early 80's) for about 2 1/2 hours work; but better than digging up the lawn or trying to use a welder. After that, he had the hot water running until warmer weather came.

 

[all your parts]

i close about 1000 pool every year and have never used anti-freeze as long as you get all the water out of the lines (blowing them out) you are fine

 

[MEvan]

I have to respectfully disagree that no antifreeze is needed with well blown out lines. You will never get every bit of water out of a line and everything that is left will settle to the lowest spot. You also have no 100% way to ensure plugs dont leak etc. Skimmers need some antifreeze incase rainwater enters them. Water features such as sheer decents need to have antifreeze put or blown into them because their is no way to seal off the discharge side of that line. It is a risk to use no antifreeze. Most times you will be ok without it but even once is a mistake that is foolish to make. I use no fewer than 2 gallons per pool and I have used as many as 17 on a pool with spill over spa ans lots of water features, including a splash pad. I am also in a climate with a 32 inch frost line. Warmer areas with shallow frost lines may indeed need no antifreeze but I would still use some.

 

[JasonLion]

I'm with MEvan, anti-freeze isn't "required" but it sure is a good idea. I prefer to have protection in "depth", which means more than one thing keeping the lines safe so that if one form of protection fails another one will still do the job. Blown out and plugged lines should be fine, but what if the plug fails? Add anti-freeze and the line is still safe even if the plug fails.

I prefer to have at least three layers of protection, water too low to get into the pipes, pipes blown and plugged, and anti-freeze at a minimum. That may be overkill, but if you have ever had to dig up your yard, or worse jackhammer into the deck, looking for where the pipe broke over the winter you will tend to agree that you can never have too much freeze protection.

 

[Hotrod30]

That may be overkill, but if you have ever had to dig up your yard, or worse jackhammer into the deck, looking for where the pipe broke over the winter you will tend to agree that you can never have too much freeze protection.

I saw that at a friend's house. It sure can make for a bad pool opening day. The return line split about 2 foot from the side of the pool under the concrete patio.