Frozen Pipes?

[nazran]

Pool owners... North Texas pool. Open year round. Freeze guard in working order. Last night artic front and crazy wind blew in soo many leaves that my skimmers clogged to the point where water was moving at a trickle through lines this morning and it was 16 degrees. Drained pump by removing strainer basket and removed drain plugs. Was not frozen there. Turn pump on and it is running but water is not moving through the pump basket... I can see the water is liquid in the saltwater cell. I am guessing one of the lines froze over night. I have 'tented' the pool equipment and set a propane heater near to try and warm all the pipes. Any other solutions?

 

[duraleigh]

What is the temp going to be today?

What's it going to be tonight and tomorrow?

 

[nazran]

30 today and 20 tonight... I guess I should say the pump is humming but know idea of propellers spinning

 

[mas985]

Is water coming out of the returns?

If in doubt, drain the pad equipment during long cold spells.

 

[nazran]

Is water coming out of the returns?

If in doubt, drain the pad equipment during long cold spells.

No water flowing in to pump none out. Tried priming pump and no joy. Pump sounds bad... Grundy. Out of my depths. Drained the pumps removed salt cell and will pray enough water is out of lines to allow non destructive expansion tonight. Luckily it is Texas so it will be 60 in two days. Will see if it starts up then and or call pool company tomorrow

 

[minmex]

Same thing almost happened to me, in the North TX region, but my freeze thermostat didn't work, causing my freeze up.

I tented my equipment pad and put a little propane heater inside. Took 3-4 hours of heating and then things thawed out enough to get pumping again.
The tent I made was pretty well sealed and it was at around 60F with the heater inside. It's pumping normally now.

 

[pooldv]

Drain your filter too.

 

[Luke Alverson]

Not sure if this is helpful, but I had a similar issue last night, same symptoms as you describe. Been emptying my skimmers hourly with all the leaves and wind we got with that front. Last night, system gummed up, I put the system in service mode, cleaned the skimmers and the filter basked in the pump. Primed the pump and started the system back up but no water was moving in or out. Was worried about freeze with temps in the teens, but water temp was in the 40's per the sensor, so I ruled freeze out. Went back to skimmers and rimmed out the drain pipes, then adjusted the valves to isolate each skimmer individually to increase the suction. 20 seconds later the water rushed back in, with a fresh plug of leaves in the pump filter. Despite my best skimmer cleaning efforts, I guess some leaves got past and plugged the pipe. You may have a bigger leaf clog that's not moving out as easily.