Does anyone leave a cover on all winter?

[uraceulose]

I'm wondering if it might help to prevent a bit of sunlight from getting to the water and allow algae to grow? Water temp is down to 47 degrees but I've been battling what I think/thought was a combined chlorine issue due to algae.

The water is so cold I'm too big of a wuss to swim down to the main drain this time of year, that or my deep end light are the only 2 spots I am unable to get to until Spring without draining.

Just curious if there are any drawbacks to just leaving the solar cover on all winter.

 

[dereksanders]

Depends on the climate, but plenty of us leave a cover on all winter. A cover will help retard any UV coming into the water.

At this point I’d fight any algae in the early spring.

 

[uraceulose]

Thank you sir

 

[uraceulose]

Do you guys still run a pressure side vacuum or robot or anything under the cover or just let the leaves and stuff accumulate and deal with in the Spring or clean somewhat or ?

Sorry...first winter with a pool. No CC all summer then got hit right as the temp came down

 

[mknauss]

In Redding you get some lower temperatures, but rarely much below freezing for long periods.
I would operate the pool as normal using freeze protection for short periods of cold weather and draining the surface equipment for those rare longer cold periods.

Maintain FC and pH as normal.

 

[uraceulose]

Copy that. Thank you sir

 

[mknauss]

Preparing Pool for Cooler Months - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[uraceulose]

Will read!

 

[uraceulose]

In Redding you get some lower temperatures, but rarely much below freezing for long periods.
I would operate the pool as normal using freeze protection for short periods of cold weather and draining the surface equipment for those rare longer cold periods.

Maintain FC and pH as normal.

Thank you so much. You hit the nail on the head with our temperatures. That's how I've got it setup now.

By normal on the PH...typically, I'll run the PH down to around 7.4 and let it drift to 7.8 ish then bring it back down to 7.4 through the summer.

Now with the colder water, in order to keep CSI below .3 pool math is wanting me to run PH at 7.8 ish

Is it better to run PH at 7.6 and let CSI ride at -.42 or run PH at 7.8 and try to keep CSI at -.23 ?

I'm thinking that through the colder months without SWCG running, it will prevent or reduce PH drift? I also didn't get to play with the solar covers yet much this last summer but I do recall it really helping with FC loss and actually keeping PH lower but I don't know if it's better for PH stability.

Guess I can just play around with that part but on the CSI vs PH...which is more important until about April to keep close to ideal?

 

[mknauss]

Keep pH in the 7's.
SWCG has no discernible effect on pH. Your fill water adds TA which pushes your pH up
Without adding fill water, your pH should be pretty stable. Rain may effect it some.

 

[uraceulose]

Copy that. Do you run an auto top off on your pool or prefer not to in order to help stabilize PH?

 

[mknauss]

My auto filler is set up year around. I run it for about an hour during summer and every other day for 1/2 hour in the winter. I have an automated valve controlled by my Easytouch to turn it on an off. That is because I use a RV water softener to remove the calcium from my fill water. The RV water softener does not work well (nor can I record the volume being added) at the dribble rate that occurs if I leave the autofill line on all the time.

 

[uraceulose]

10-4

Our water is pretty good here. We have the entire house on a really big softener system that works great but the auto fill is the local municipal water that is pretty good quality water.

I don't recall our exact fill numbers but I'll check again and strongly consider just putting the pool on one of those softeners and smart valves like you did. It would be nice to know how many gallons I am adding via fill/losing via evaporation

 

[uraceulose]

This one looks pretty cool with one of these valves.

 

[mknauss]

I have that water softener.
My valve is all in one. Electric as I tied into my Easytouch.

 

[uraceulose]

I'm out of relays on the IntelliConnect so I'll just put that little valve on a timer/schedule every day via Alexa and functionally should work as intended.