Since I live in NC, I decided not to close my pool this winter. I set up a timer for the pump to run at night and all was well....until my pool pump broke. I've got a new pool pump, but needed an electrician to do some re-wiring and of course, haven't been able to get one to come out yet (worst pandemic ever - they're all sick and backed up). And now of course, there is a nasty snow/ice storm coming through and I've got a full pool that I can't pump water through. I drained the filter and above-ground lines, but I'm concerned about everything else! Is there anything I can do to keep it from freezing or damaging my skimmer and pipes?
Help needed, unclosed pool pump broken and snow/ice storm in NC
- Thread starter Bvallang
- Start date
- May 3, 2014
- 59,253
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Any underground piping will be fine unless you will have sub freezing temperatures for many days in a row. As long as you drained the pump (both drain plugs) and the filter, you should be fine. If you wish, for the skimmer, put a plastic bottle in it with something in the bottle (stones, rice, whatever) to weight it down so it takes up some space in the skimmer. If you get freezing there, the bottle will take up the expansion space. Be sure the SWCG is fully drained or remove it and take it inside.
Read Preparing Pool for Cooler Months - Further Reading
Read Preparing Pool for Cooler Months - Further Reading
Will do, thanks so much! Oh yes, I put the SWCG away a month or so ago, just been using liquid chlorine as needed to keep the FC level appropriate.
I don't know where in NC you are located but for a lot of the state, the temperature barely got below freezing. By yesterday afternoon, it rose above freezing and the sleet/snow turned to rain. Another thing you could toss in the skimmers are pieces of pool noodle. I close my pool for the winter but I don't do much more than drain everything on the equipment pad and put Gizmos in the skimmers.
I'm in central NC. Yea...the problem is that it looks like overnight temps are going to stay pretty low and get into the teens this week. I think I'm just going to drain a little water and put in a gizmo for now like you suggest. Trying to figure out if I need to blow out the pipes or not though if I do that?
It depends on the elevation of your equipment pad and the pool surface. My pool equipment is 18" above the pool water line. The frost line is 10" for central NC. That will mean that once I open all the lines on my pad, the water in the lines to the pool will be 18" below the ground at the equipment pad. I'm not worried about the lines freezing since the ground temperature should be above freezing at 18" in depth (almost twice the frost line). The Gizmo will protect the skimmer if the water freezes in it. All the water return lines in the pool are at least 6" below the water line. Since ice forms from top down, the pool surface would need to freeze more than 6" thick before the openings could become frozen. I don't concern myself with blowing out the lines.