Keeping my pool open in Maryland this winter

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T

tkrotchko

0
May 7, 2013
50
Brookeville, MD
Pool Size
20000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
CircuPool Core-55
My plaster was just finished in my refurb November 1, and I wanted to keep the pool open a full 2 months to let the plaster cure. My plaster is pretty well cured, although as you'd expect, the pH keeps rising a bit. But my overall chemistry is pretty much dead on.

In looking through the weather for the next two weeks, the Maryland/DC area is predicted to be mild through late January, and by the beginning of March, the threat of super-cold weather is gone. So that leaves me with a 6 week window of potential cold winter.

The water is pretty much perfect chemistry-wise, I have a pump running 24 hours a day at low speed (800-1200 RPM) along with a generator to keep it running in case of power failures, a retractable cover to keep leaves out, and a propane heater if we get crazy cold weather.

And my thought process is now.... why bother paying someone to close the pool, just let the pump keep the water moving, bump on the heater if the temps get crazy cold. Plus, they pump out half the water I just paid to put in there, which leaves my plaster exposed. I really want to keep that plaster underwater with pH, TA, and CH correct for a year.

So I'm all set to call up the pool company and tell them I don't need them to close on January 10th. Can anyone spot a flaw in my plan?
 
Last edited:
Also MD pool owner. I do see a couple of flaws in your plan.

#1 is if this is a money only reason to not close, you will spend more in electric keeping the pump running all winter than it costs to close. Does your equipment have freeze protection? If so, it goes to a higher speed (usually full speed) than you have now when it kicks in. Don't forget in MD usually pool season starts in May. So it isn't just the 6 weeks that you are keeping it going it is until May when realistically it will be warm enough to swim.

#2 if something were to happen to your pool or equipment and it turned out it could be even remotely traced to not closing or not closing properly, you can bet your pool builder will not warranty anything.

#3 it is not recommend to run the heater in the winter especially not to just heat the water a bit to prevent freezing. I am not sure all the technical reasons but I believe it damages the heat exchanger.

That said, I do know someone that kept his pool open in MD throughout the season. He kept it heated to 85 though and regularly swam on nice days during winter. He also ended up getting a full inflatable pool enclosure and then a few years after that decided it just wasn't worth the expense and hassle.
 
PoolGate said:
#3 it is not recommend to run the heater in the winter especially not to just heat the water a bit to prevent freezing. I am not sure all the technical reasons but I believe it damages the heat exchanger.
Click to expand...

Read Condensation thread

Cold water running through the heater core causes condensation. When the condensation mixes with the flue gasses, then it is like acid rain in the heater.
 
Another concern is if the electricity goes out. Given that the polar vortex has split and shifted south, we've had one round of cold, another coming next week, and projections that Feb will be cold... You could be one ice storm and power outage away from frozen pipes underground, etc.

High pH is offset by 32 degree water for CSI. Your pH can be near 9 (ten times higher than 8) but with COLD water, CSI still isn't too bad.
 
The water is looking quite good and everything is working quite well through the week-long cold snap. It's a matter of temperature monitoring and ensuring the water stays around 40 degrees. I took advantage last week of the warm (60 degree) weather. Things area actually working according to plan.

A couple of things:

1) The purpose isn't to save the cost of closing. The purpose of this one-time event is to ensure a new plaster job completed November 1 stays underwater and balanced for a full year. There is a far greater risk of the builder declining warranty coverage if the plaster sits out of water for 6 months without proper water balance than a failure because of temperature. In fact, the plasters have not included any information on closing, rather they are quite clear on CSI being correct the first year. I track it weekly in a spreadsheet in case of any arguments on that point. It's pretty much settled in and requires minor tweaking every two weeks

2) I have a whole house generator which has already worked successfully in an 8 hour electricity outage

3) I have run the heater successfully down to 7 degrees. I've run it repeatedly and I do it for 3-6 hours so the entire heater gets hot burning off any sort of acid that someone mentioned. My goal is always to keep the pool water in the upper 30's.

4) My pool pump never stops. Ever. During the day it runs at 800 RPM, at night it switches automatically to 1600 RPM.
 
I thought u couldn’t run a heater in lower than a certain degree of weather? For some reason 42 is in my head.

If the plaster company is so worried about it csi why didn’t they wait till this spring to plaster it? Knowing a winter closing is coming so close?

So did they kinda throw this on you? Cause it’s a lot to deal with bs waiting till spring?
 
tkrotchko said:
3) I have run the heater successfully down to 7 degrees. I've run it repeatedly and I do it for 3-6 hours so the entire heater gets hot burning off any sort of acid that someone mentioned. My goal is always to keep the pool water in the upper 30's.
Click to expand...

jimim said:
I thought u couldn’t run a heater in lower than a certain degree of weather? For some reason 42 is in my head.
Click to expand...

@tkrotchko See page 27 in http://www.poolinspections.com/manuals/heaters/minimax_nt.pdf

OPERATING THIS HEATER CONTINUOUSLY AT WATER TEMPERATURE BELOW 68° F. WILL CAUSE HARMFUL CONDENSATION AND WILL DAMAGE THE HEATER AND WILL VOID THE WARRANTY.
Click to expand...
 

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jimim said:
I thought u couldn’t run a heater in lower than a certain degree of weather? For some reason 42 is in my head.

If the plaster company is so worried about it csi why didn’t they wait till this spring to plaster it? Knowing a winter closing is coming so close?

So did they kinda throw this on you? Cause it’s a lot to deal with bs waiting till spring?
Click to expand...

I wanted it done in fall; I GC'd the pool and deck refurb and that's when I had time time do it, plus there were significant discounts from everyone doing it in the fall. The other thing it did was that it gave the deck people time to restore all the landscaping and get the grass regrown before winter set in keeping me from having a mud puddle in the side of my yard.

As I said, everything is working quite, er, swimmingly. If not for the polar vortex, I probably wouldn't have run the heater very much; but I got the water temp up to about 50 degrees and then ran it one evening when we got down to three degrees. I run it about once a week for two hours just to ensure its still working.

In fact, the only thing that's been a slight issue is the o-ring on the filter so there's a slight leak there, but not enough to worry about. Plus, common sense tells you not to mess with plastics when it gets cold. I'll live with the drip until march (less then 3 weeks away), when I'll break down the filter, put in four fresh cartridges, and replace the o-ring if necessary. I suspect it will be fine.

Oh, one other interesting note about the cold weather, the pool water is a huge thermal mass. It doesn't change temperature all that readily. Four days of single digit temps only dropped temperatures 5 degrees. What is affected is the above-ground equipment. So ice will form inside the equipment in that situation. I found the best way of dealing with it to run the pump faster through the night.
 
What is funny is when you don't want to swim in less then 75 degree water, and the water is 80 degrees. ONE night with temps in the 50's and that water is going to be 72, but it takes it being 95 degrees for a week to raise it to 73 degrees. I don't have a heater....
 
tkrotchko said:
I wanted it done in fall; I GC'd the pool and deck refurb and that's when I had time time do it, plus there were significant discounts from everyone doing it in the fall. The other thing it did was that it gave the deck people time to restore all the landscaping and get the grass regrown before winter set in keeping me from having a mud puddle in the side of my yard.

As I said, everything is working quite, er, swimmingly. If not for the polar vortex, I probably wouldn't have run the heater very much; but I got the water temp up to about 50 degrees and then ran it one evening when we got down to three degrees. I run it about once a week for two hours just to ensure its still working.

In fact, the only thing that's been a slight issue is the o-ring on the filter so there's a slight leak there, but not enough to worry about. Plus, common sense tells you not to mess with plastics when it gets cold. I'll live with the drip until march (less then 3 weeks away), when I'll break down the filter, put in four fresh cartridges, and replace the o-ring if necessary. I suspect it will be fine.

Oh, one other interesting note about the cold weather, the pool water is a huge thermal mass. It doesn't change temperature all that readily. Four days of single digit temps only dropped temperatures 5 degrees. What is affected is the above-ground equipment. So ice will form inside the equipment in that situation. I found the best way of dealing with it to run the pump faster through the night.
Click to expand...

totally missed the part u gc'ing it urself. my bad.
 
wogster said:
What is funny is when you don't want to swim in less then 75 degree water, and the water is 80 degrees. ONE night with temps in the 50's and that water is going to be 72, but it takes it being 95 degrees for a week to raise it to 73 degrees. I don't have a heater....
Click to expand...

My best rule of thumb is that even with an electric cover, the water temperature will tends towards the nighttime lows in your area.

And I like the water at 85 degrees. I get up early and do laps to start my day, and so when I get in, I want to feel "ahhhhh", rather than "AUUUUUGH"
 
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