Advice on running pool heater for a day ahead of polar vortex

[dailygenesis]

Up here in OKC we are just now crawling out of the freezing temps. It's been 10 solid days of freezing temps at least the majority of the day, with probably 6-7 of those days staying below freezing 24/7. At the heart of the freeze, we were at 0F. We had two solid days where it stayed between 0 and 15.

The lowest temp my water reached was 35 and I had zero ice throughout the entire event. Last year, during a much shorter stint of freezing, my water got to 32 and had a good amount of ice on the surface. The difference this time, I believe, was the pre-heating. It bought me at least a day and a half on the water temperature decline and I have to think that warming 17,500 gallons of water up to 70 degrees created a bit of a thermos in the surrounding concrete and ground that kept things from freezing so quickly.

But it's hard to compare apples to apples. This year, even though we were sub-freezing, we had a lot of sun, and that makes a big difference, etc., etc.

I'm just looking forward to some days above freezing. The 10 day forecast looks to be a bit cloudy but fully above freezing from here. Hooray!

 

[DB-Cooper]

Up here in OKC we are just now crawling out of the freezing temps. It's been 10 solid days of freezing temps at least the majority of the day, with probably 6-7 of those days staying below freezing 24/7. At the heart of the freeze, we were at 0F. We had two solid days where it stayed between 0 and 15.

The lowest temp my water reached was 35 and I had zero ice throughout the entire event. Last year, during a much shorter stint of freezing, my water got to 32 and had a good amount of ice on the surface. The difference this time, I believe, was the pre-heating. It bought me at least a day and a half on the water temperature decline and I have to think that warming 17,500 gallons of water up to 70 degrees created a bit of a thermos in the surrounding concrete and ground that kept things from freezing so quickly.

But it's hard to compare apples to apples. This year, even though we were sub-freezing, we had a lot of sun, and that makes a big difference, etc., etc.

I'm just looking forward to some days above freezing. The 10 day forecast looks to be a bit cloudy but fully above freezing from here. Hooray!

Awesome to hear you survived! As somehow, warm weather always precedes these blasts in Texas, if the forecast calls for 3+ days, I may opt to take the warm weather opportunity and heat prior to buy any buffer. I have good data from the last two cold blasts to see where things are. I do agree that sun helps a lot!

 

[AndyTN]

Movement of water makes a significant difference in whether or not water freezes when near freezing temps. I completely drained my equipment so I didn't have to worry and just ran a little pump with a hose going from the steps to the deep end, with the water coming out a 6-8 inches above the water. After 9 straight days of arctic weather with total avg temp at 19, a large section getting very little sun exposure froze 4 inches thick. I drilled some holes to find out and the side getting the most sun exposure froze to 2 inches thick. The small area in the deep end where the hose was constantly moving the water never froze. My water temp also hovered around 34-35 two feet below the water line and was 45 before the cold air moved in.

I drained my equipment because I had no interest in going outside at 2am to drain it if the power went off. Others in my neighborhood without heaters decided to keep their main pump running the whole time and had very little icing. We had the same weather but I was only pumping 5 gpm while they pumped 40-60 gpm. Their pump was circulating the whole pool while mine was just making ripples on the surface.

 

[mfifield01]

I got a little bit of ice in my autofill area. I did cover it with a piece of wood. The autofill area doesn't get much water movement. My pool water got down to 39.

Last year, I drained my equipment. The power went out for 3 days. Power was solid this year, but I was ready to drain.