Need Help Closing the pool

[Johnsmith123]

Hello All. After 10 years I am taking the courage of closing the pool for winter myself ( live in MN ). I watched my neighbor closed his pool. My first surprise is how to blow the returns. ( neighbor was able to do it from the pipe going into the sand filter because it was removable for him. Mine is fixed ( may be because of cartage filter.. Highlighted 3 )

I can access the return pipe before the vales but there is some sort of star insert there, not allowing me to insert the blower hose. I tried gently removing it unsuccessfully.

I thought about blowing from the inflow pipe to the heater but there is no enough space. Can not move the pipe much because its all fixed. ( Highlighted 2 )

While writing this post and looking at the attachment, I think I should try outflow pipe since there is seems to be more room available

I am pretty sure I am missing some obvious thing here because the pool company was able to do it last ten years ( unfortunately I never noticed on where they were inserting the blower hose for returns )

will appreciate the feedback

 

[Newdude]

With a cyclone you can likely blow from the skimmers all the way through.

If you have a main drain, close it and blow the rest. Then cap the returns and the air will go out the drains. Close the drain valve while under pressure and then shut the blower off.

 

[Johnsmith123]

I did get the cyclone to close the pool. Sound like your suggestion will work and I appreciate it very much. But I will be very nervous trying it considering my first time.

If nobody else has any other suggestion on how to blow return separately I will try out your suggestion.

 

[PoolStored]

Why don't you create this, leave the salt cell in and you can blow everything...

 

[Newdude]

But I will be very nervous trying it considering my first time.

The first two times is kinda like an experiment. You'll be fiddling with different things to see how it works best with your setup. They will all make total sense as you mess with it and see air out the return after opening that valve. (Etc etc)

The order makes no difference so long as they all get blown in the end.

 

[Johnsmith123]

"How to modify Pool Pump Lid" video is so cool. I will attempt that next year.. Thank you so much for sharing

I was able to access the returns from the pipe coming out of heater ( highlighter 4 )... Hopefully everything is winterized correctly.

One last question. do I need to do anything special with the red highlighted plumbing? I assumed when I was blowing air through the 3 regular return pipes ( one by one ) it will have blown air through the red highlighted pipe as well