Giant Pool Shut Down

[Old Guard]

I manage two large semi-public pools in Central Mississippi. One is 420,000 gallons the other is 125,000 gallons. Neither has any type of cover. Both are slated to be replastered this off season. In the past these pools have just been totally ignored from Labor Day through Memorial Day ever year. No pump. No chemicals. Minimal if any cleaning. Having been stuck with the recovery from this mess last spring, I know this is a flawed strategy. But don't know what the right strategy is. My intuition is to treat them exactly as if they were still in use with at least weekly chemical monitoring, vacuuming and backwashing. Is this just a waste of labor, chemicals and electricity? In light of the planned replastering, should I just let things go until the replastering is complete? When should I try to schedule the work? November or March?

 

[wireform]

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[Toxophilite]

Here in our climate, I have never seen a public pool just "let go" for an off season. Private pools are not required a closing, either. Almost every larger city, apartment, and subdivision have pools, and while not having any clue as to their maintenance regimes, the water always looks good year round.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Does your area get freezing winter temps?

One problem with replastering the pools and then closing them is that the stagnant water could create a mess with the freshly plastered surfaces. The pH can go really high and the CH can increase to the point of severe calcium scaling. Then you will not only have a green pool to contend with but also a difficult scaling problem as well.

I suggest you hold off on the replaster until the spring.

 

[Old Guard]

Does your area get freezing winter temps?

One problem with replastering the pools and then closing them is that the stagnant water could create a mess with the freshly plastered surfaces. The pH can go really high and the CH can increase to the point of severe calcium scaling. Then you will not only have a green pool to contend with but also a difficult scaling problem as well.

I suggest you hold off on the replaster until the spring.

And keep the chemicals water circulation and cleanliness at levels appropriate for use until then? It's what I want to do but the Y is always pinching pennies I'm looking for ammunition other than aesthetics to justify the relatively minor additional expense. Or perhaps there is a middle ground like running the pumps for a few hours every other day, vacuuming and backwashing every week and keeping the chemicals where they should be year-round + a pre-opening SLAM.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

If no one is swimming in the pools and they are kept relatively clean during the winter, the chlorine use is going to be minimal. My pool is open all year and I shutoff my SWG in mid December typically as the water gets too cold for it to operate. During that time I switch to manually adding liquid chlorine. I can go weeks between chlorine addition and I’m excessive if I use more than 2 gallons over 4 months. This translates into my pool using less than 0.1ppm per day of chlorine.

If you can partially cover your pools, your chemical additions will be minimal and it will just be the cost of the running the pumps for a few hours each day and someone keeping it free of debris.