Leaving pool open year round

[JJ_Tex]

I have a pretty good "side-by-side" from the Texas storms last year. Our house was included in the rolling blackouts, and we had to drain our equipment to prevent damage.

Standing on my back wall, I can see 3 pools from neighbors on the street behind us. Somehow they avoided the blackouts and their pools were just running away with no ice.

As I was cleaning dog off of our ice-covered pool, I was very tempted to fling it over the fence into their nice ice free pool.

 

[HeyEng]

I have a pretty good "side-by-side" from the Texas storms last year. Our house was included in the rolling blackouts, and we had to drain our equipment to prevent damage.

Standing on my back wall, I can see 3 pools from neighbors on the street behind us. Somehow they avoided the blackouts and their pools were just running away with no ice.

As I was cleaning dog off of our ice-covered pool, I was very tempted to fling it over the fence into their nice ice free pool.

The ice was an odd thing. We had no ice form AT all around the pool. Neighbors pool (much, MUCH larger) did have ice start forming even with pump running. I recall some other members here (in North TX, I believe) reporting the same. The only thing I can figure is that ours is salt water and the neighbor's isn't. I didn't think the relatively low salinity levels would make a difference, but that's the only thing I can think of.

 

[TexEdmond]

We spent about $15K dealing with a slew of damaged trees after the storm.

About the same for us, almost all of our fence was damaged and replaced. I'm grateful I took the time to have our insurance policy in place before we closed. Our backyard went from this:



To this. "Welcome to the neighborhood!"

 

[JohnT]

Doesn't that really depend on the elevation of the pool equipment to the pool surface? All my equipment is 18" higher than the top of the water in the pool. The frost line is less than 10" here. If for some reason we would lose power, I would drain all equipment, open all lines, and put Gizmos and swim noodle pieces in the skimmers. The equipment wouldn't have any water that could freeze. The water in the lines to and from the equipment would be 18" below ground which should prevent it from freezing.

10” frost line, but you will have water in the skimmer pipe which isn’t insulated by soil.

 

[Homebrewale]

10” frost line, but you will have water in the skimmer pipe which isn’t insulated by soil.

Sure, one small weak point but there isn't much you can do about it if the power is out.