Help - Pool open but planned power outage - freezing temps

[sas90]

I keep our pool open year round and run pump when temps fall below freezing.
I live in Oklahoma and it’s been below freezing for over a week now; pump has been running the entire time.
Oklahoma just announced rolling/planned outages (15 mins to 1hr); unknown when/if my area will be shut off.
current temp - 3 degrees F but sun is actually shining today! It’s been cloudy/no sun for most of the time.
Pool size - 10,000 gallons

question - if the outage doesn’t last more than 1 hr will my equipment be ok or do I need to try and winterize (drain pool below lines and drain all equipment) before the planned outage that I’m not certain if/when it will occur?

thank you!

 

[Texas Splash]

You shouldn't need to lower the water level and mess with lines. Your biggest concern should be for the equipment pad and skimmer. Take a look at the many threads already posted about this subject in the past few hours in the Everything Else sub-forum. You'll see tons of great advice to help you past these few critical hours until power and weather stabilize.

Everything Else

Heaters, covers, lights, fountains, waterfalls, brushes, leaks, etc

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[YippeeSkippy]

We can't make any guarantees, Steph. What if they blackout lasts longer than expected. Not good. I don't think a real hour off would be a problem but I'm more surprised you haven't frosted up a bit by now anyway??

I do as you and *normally* in winter just run the pump overnight on my occasional freezing nights. But this is nuts.

Do you have the guts to get out there and turn the power off, drain out the equipment? If you do, you'll sleep better.

The sooner you make the decision the better.

Maddie

 

[sas90]

You shouldn't need to lower the water level and mess with lines. Your biggest concern should be for the equipment pad and skimmer. Take a look at the many threads already posted about this subject in the past few hours in the Everything Else sub-forum. You'll see tons of great advice to help you past these few critical hours until power and weather stabilize.

Thank you! I tried searching quickly but didn’t see something specific to my question so I posted since it’s become a bit more urgent with possibility of power outages.
We were having issues w ice forming at skimmer so a couple days ago we placed an electric water heater right by the skimmer which is keeping the water moving there. The returns don’t seem to have an issue.
thank you

 

[sas90]

We can't make any guarantees, Steph. What if they blackout lasts longer than expected. Not good. I don't think a real hour off would be a problem but I'm more surprised you haven't frosted up a bit by now anyway??

I do as you and *normally* in winter just run the pump overnight on my occasional freezing nights. But this is nuts.

Do you have the guts to get out there and turn the power off, drain out the equipment? If you do, you'll sleep better.

The sooner you make the decision the better.

Maddie

Thanks Maddie!
We definitely have a layer of ice formed across the top of our pool but we continually break it up and as mentioned to texassplash keeping a water heater by the skimmer.

I’m just trying to decide on taking the chance for the hour or less it may be off or draining equipment when we’re so close to temps rising above freezing again (4 more days!)
I just feel we’ve worked so hard to keep pool open in these record temps to have to drain equipment and worry about the plumbing in/around the pool.

 

[Texas Splash]

I'm a little nervous about the water heater thing. Electricity and water never mix. We have a couple more hours of sunshine before things ice-over again, so just do the basics. If power is still out, turn off any pump breaker. Drain the pump basket and filter of water. Remove teh skimmer basket and place either a cut-up pool noodle in the skimmer, or a bottle/jug. The bottle/jug can be filled partially (about 1/3) with RV antifreeze if you have it, or just a few pebbles to help hold it down. If you have a 5-gal bucket, place it upside down over the skimmer lid with maybe something to weight it in place. Just a little extra top-cover protection,.

Oh, and place a tarp over the equipment at the pad if you can. Maybe wrap any exposed PVC lines there as well.

 

[HeyEng]

Since you are in Edmond, anything over an hour could (probable) result in ice happening. It's been cold long enough that everything is already cold soaked. Plus, a lot of folks in TX have mentioned that the planned outages have been more than an hour.

 

[sas90]

I'm a little nervous about the water heater thing. Electricity and water never mix. We have a couple more hours of sunshine before things ice-over again, so just do the basics. If power is still out, turn off any pump breaker. Drain the pump basket and filter of water. Remove teh skimmer basket and place either a cut-up pool noodle in the skimmer, or a bottle/jug. The bottle/jug can be filled partially (about 1/3) with RV antifreeze if you have it, or just a few pebbles to help hold it down. If you have a 5-gal bucket, place it upside down over the skimmer lid with maybe something to weight it in place. Just a little extra top-cover protection,.

Oh, and place a tarp over the equipment at the pad if you can. Maybe wrap any exposed PVC lines there as well.

thanks for the additional advice
We haven’t experienced the planned outage YET. Just trying to plan ahead and determine if I should drain equipment.
the electric water heater is like what’s used by farmers to keep their water troughs from icing over. It’s placed just outside the skimmer in the Pool keeping the surface water from freezing there.