First time 'winterizing' without pool store's kit

[JoannaB]

Long time lurker, first time poster! I don’t close/drain my pool but I do winterize, as in I turn off the heater, add BioGuard Arctic Blue Winter shock and algaecide kit, Close the cover, and run the pump for about 3 hours a day (24/7 during a freeze--which is infrequent). Everything was fine for a long time... until this past summer.

In June I opened my pool to CYA way over 100. Did 3 drains and refills and CYA was still 90-100 so by July I gave up and ran the pool with high CYA all summer, sanitizing with cal hypo and using a lot of PH reducer. This month I did 2 more drains/refills and finally the CYA is now between 40-50. Water temp is down to 55. Still working on balancing (pH is 7.8, TA is 60) but once I do that, how do I keep chlorine in the pool all winter without having to open the cover frequently, which is a lot of wear and tear on the motor? Is it safe to pour bleach into the skimmer (with the filter on)?



Pool info:
16,000 gallons IG, gray plaster, Pentair Cartridge Filter
Pool install 2011
Taylor Test Kit

 

[Catanzaro]

Joanna:

Instead of going through the trouble that you have in the past, why not just close the pool by clearing out the lines of water, closing the returns, adding plugs or Gizzmo's to the skimmers, and trapping air in the main drain. No, I would not pour bleach in the skimmer without the filter on.

What you can do is create a 1" PVC adapter to be placed under the cover and sticking out of the pool. You could place 6" in the pool in front of a return. Add bleach and it would slowly be poured in front of a return with the pump running (if you wish to maintain chlorine in the pool). You would only need to maintain chlorine every few weeks at most. Grab water out of the skimmer (after pump has been running for an hour or so), even though this is not 100% accurate, but you will have an idea if chlorine is still in the pool. If this was my pool, I would shut it down and not be bothered for months at a time.

 

[Catanzaro]

As an FYI, your BioGuard product probably contains metals, especially the algaecide. Not needed. We either recommend closing at SLAM levels, or normal levels with Poly60.

 

[JoannaB]

We don't generally close our pools in the NW so I was never shown how to do it. I wouldn't even attempt this without someone walking me thru it in person. The PVC idea I get, but our auto cover is on tracks and covers the pool edge to edge. There's no way for anything to stick out above the cover. I would have to either add chlorine to the skimmer, or open the cover to add it. I could perhaps feed a pipe or hose thru the skimmer into the pool so the bleach is getting closer to a return than not. What about cal hypo pucks in the skimmer?