North Texas Winter Pool Care

[ctrav]

Ok so what should I do for the winter here in North Texas for my pool? I have read many posts about closing the pool for the winter but I'm not so sure I need to do this. Here are my questions thus far:

Should I turn off SWG for the winter an use chlorine?
Should I drop the pH to a lower level? During the summer my new pool seemed to want to stay between 7.8 and 8 so I would let it climb to 8.2 or so and drop down to around 7.4 and let it climb with aeration.
My automation system has freeze protection and turns the pump on automatically when temps fall so that is good. My PB said to turn the water features on at a trickle when a hard freeze is expected to keep water flowing thru the pipes???

Not sure what else I should or could do so any suggestions or tips would be appreciated. Here are some of my most recent numbers:

FC 8
CC 0
pH 7.8 or could be 8 (I always have a little trouble reading the colors )
TA 70
CH 400
CYA 80
Salt 3300
CSI -0.14
Temp 63

Lastly I run my pump from 9-11am and from 8-10pm. Is this good? Should I run from 9am to 1pm to ensure proper water turnover? My water is clear on current schedule...

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Jimrahbe]

Cliff,

My SWCG stops being reliable when the water gets into the middle 50's. It thinks the salt level is lower than it really is... At about 52 degrees it goes into cold water shut off mode.

So, about this time of year, depending on the weather, I just set the percent of output on the SWCG to zero and then manually add Liquid Chlorine to keep my FC up. Does not take much when the water is cold.

I run my pump 24/7 at 1200 rpm and I do that year round so I don't pay much attention to freeze protection. If we get a real cold snap that is going to last for more than a few days, I'll turn on some old incandescent 100 Watt light bulbs inside the equipment shed.

To be honest, I've never heard of "Northlake" Texas... Everyone has heard of Southlake, but Northlake, not so much.. Where is it?

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.

 

[ctrav]

Hi Jim...Northlake is 14 miles south of Denton on 35, right off FM407 between Argyle and Justin. Should I worry about the pH or just keep the FC up? Thanks for the info

 

[Jimrahbe]

Cliff,

I really don't do anything different during the winter, test and chemical wise, except I don't have to do it nearly as often.

Just like me.... everything pool related, seems to slow down in the winter...

Thanks for the location update....

Jim R.