Any special winter pool procedures to do in North Texas?

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tenderfoot

tenderfoot

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Aug 10, 2017
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North/TX
I am in the DFW area and was wondering if there are any procedures that I am supposed to be doing on the pool, water and/or equipment in the winter.

I have a saltwater pool, so I know I have to manually adjust the chlorine level during winter because the SWG won't work below 55F, and I know I have to continue to keep up with the pH just as I'd normally do.

But, I see all these "I am closing my pool for the off season" posts and wondering if I should be doing something or if those procedures just apply to pools in colder climates.
 
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The short answer is no, assuming you have some sort of freeze guard on your pump/automation system that will kick it on when it is going to freeze.

With that said, I would be curious what people say for your sheer descents, fill lines and anything else that may not always be on in pool or spa mode.
 
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Ahh... Yes, the system does have freeze protection and I did see it kick in this past winter when the temps got very low.

On the sheer descents: I do have them run daily for about 10 minutes throughout the year. Indeed it would be good to know if those should NOT run when its freezing temps! I am thinking they shouldn't run so I will probably change the winter schedule on the system to NOT run the sheer descents and do that manually instead. Thanks for mentioning that!
 
JJ_Tex said:
The short answer is no, assuming you have some sort of freeze guard on your pump/automation system that will kick it on when it is going to freeze.

With that said, I would be curious what people say for your sheer descents, fill lines and anything else that may not always be on in pool or spa mode.
Click to expand...
Our 3 sheer descents are triggered on their own freeze guard tied to their dedicated pump. Main pump has its own freeze guard as well. Nothing on Polaris booster. No automation yet...

Never thought about our fill line. Since its tied to a supply line on our irrigation system, and I have never winterized that, I'm thinking we are OK in that regard.
 
Thanks. What about pump running time? Should it run for the same number of hours as in the regular season? I did that last year and all was OK, but if I can save on electricity during winter months that would be a welcome modification! :)
 
@ajw22 : Thanks for that link!

In that linked article, it says this:

  • A few years ago freak cold spells hit some of the south and left many pool owners without power for a few days. The only way to fully guarantee the pipes wouldn’t freeze was to drain the equipment pad as they couldn’t run their pumps due to no power.

So, how does one drain the equipment on the pad? For the pump, itself does it just entail removing the two small drain plugs on the bottom side of it? Should the filter unit itself be drained as well? What about the PVC lines leading to/from the SWG, drain those too by removing the SWG?
 
Actually I think the cold spell in North Texas was 2014. There is another solution for your pool equipment, that my son & I used. Knowing this weather Ice storms seemed to make the electricity go out. While electricity was still on, we made a temporary hot box around the pool equipment. We used a roll of mylar coated bubble wrap and put in on 2 exposed sides of the equipment, north side & west side. South side had a fence & east side was house brick wall. We lined the fence with blankets. And used moving blankets on top. We also had an oil heater plugged in & inside our hot box but not touching anything. It was freezing temperatures outside yet inside it was 70 degrees. After the electricity went out it saved our equipment. Our pool equipment worked after the electricity went back on.
 

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