Brief intro before I get to my question - skip to the end if you like.
I inherited a 20 year old pool 5 months ago - its my first so I'm learning a lot from TFP - thank you! Like so many in Texas, I got hit by longer and longer power outages during the freezing weather - longest 22 hours. I was running the pool equipment and managing fine, even with a 6 hour outage I was able to keep the skimmers clear and get the water moving. But it eventually became apparent we were going to be in an extended outage so I isolated equipment, drained what I could, noodles in skimmers, etc. Nothing drained from the heater so I knew that would be an issue but things did get worse from there.
As the days progressed with everything turned off and a 4 inch layer of ice forming on the pool, I started to get cracked pipes and valves on the return side after the heater. Everything was covered but of course it was cold-soaked. In hindsight, heating tape would probably have helped here because I've had power available for the last few days. Now the ice is thawing I have a continual slow leak from the return side (cracked) Jandy and check valves and the pool level is slowly dropping (autofill turned off).
Unfortunately, the pool pad is 1 to 2 feet below pool grade so my guess is that gravity is just doing its job and the leak will stop once the pool level reaches the return jets. I have calls out to pool companies to help assess and repair, which may take a while but, in the meantime, I'm trying think what changes I might make for the future while they are repairing and replacing equipment and pipes.
So, to my question/ concern:
Since I have this issue with the pad being low, I don’t think I can rely on keeping the pool running over winter and then draining the equipment in the event of a power outage because water will always be in the return pipes and valves. Even if I buy a sump pump I might not have power to drain the pool to a suitable level in a emergency. Likewise, if I buy heater tape, that might keep this area from freezing I have same issue if I lose power.
I think I’m talking myself into doing a full winterizing in future but I would value any insight or suggestions.
In case it helps, I've attached a photo of the piping and valves prior to the damage when I was trying to work out what everything did. Basically, most of the stuff on the left side in compromised and the water is leaking from the ones marked as 'unknown'.
Thank you for any advice you may have.
I inherited a 20 year old pool 5 months ago - its my first so I'm learning a lot from TFP - thank you! Like so many in Texas, I got hit by longer and longer power outages during the freezing weather - longest 22 hours. I was running the pool equipment and managing fine, even with a 6 hour outage I was able to keep the skimmers clear and get the water moving. But it eventually became apparent we were going to be in an extended outage so I isolated equipment, drained what I could, noodles in skimmers, etc. Nothing drained from the heater so I knew that would be an issue but things did get worse from there.
As the days progressed with everything turned off and a 4 inch layer of ice forming on the pool, I started to get cracked pipes and valves on the return side after the heater. Everything was covered but of course it was cold-soaked. In hindsight, heating tape would probably have helped here because I've had power available for the last few days. Now the ice is thawing I have a continual slow leak from the return side (cracked) Jandy and check valves and the pool level is slowly dropping (autofill turned off).
Unfortunately, the pool pad is 1 to 2 feet below pool grade so my guess is that gravity is just doing its job and the leak will stop once the pool level reaches the return jets. I have calls out to pool companies to help assess and repair, which may take a while but, in the meantime, I'm trying think what changes I might make for the future while they are repairing and replacing equipment and pipes.
So, to my question/ concern:
Since I have this issue with the pad being low, I don’t think I can rely on keeping the pool running over winter and then draining the equipment in the event of a power outage because water will always be in the return pipes and valves. Even if I buy a sump pump I might not have power to drain the pool to a suitable level in a emergency. Likewise, if I buy heater tape, that might keep this area from freezing I have same issue if I lose power.
I think I’m talking myself into doing a full winterizing in future but I would value any insight or suggestions.
In case it helps, I've attached a photo of the piping and valves prior to the damage when I was trying to work out what everything did. Basically, most of the stuff on the left side in compromised and the water is leaking from the ones marked as 'unknown'.
Thank you for any advice you may have.