Overnight Freezes On The Way

[TK Knoxville]

Hi folks. First post.
5/6 year pool owner here. Usually have mildish winters here in TN and have always let the pool stand all winter, running the pump when it’s expected to drop below freezing. Seems to have worked fine so far...
Went to start the other night when it was going to be around 31 and just a hum. This is not the first time. On a rare occasion, I could flip it on/off and it would start. This past season, it seized up and I took it apart, freed up the impeller and put her back together which was fine until the other night. I’m going to try to free the impeller again today but want to solicit some advice early in case it doesn’t work.
I’ve ordered a new pump to arrive Thursday BUT looking at overnight lows of 17/24/28 Tue/Wed/Thu. ? with days 33/41/46
Here’s my setup:

I was thinking about tenting it and running an electric heater overnight those nights. Do you think this will work? If not, how much do I need to disassemble to protect everything (except the old pump)?
Even after 5/6 years, I’m still learning thanks, in great part, to all you guys and this awesome site!
Thanks in advance for some counsel.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Even if you get the pump running I'd definitely tent it and add some kind of heat in there. That way if the pump does quit on you, you will have some protection.

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! We go through the same thing here, minus the "no pump" issue of course. But you should be fine to cover the equipment pad. It takes consistent, very cold temps to really impact our plumbing, but to be safe I would cover it with a tarp or something just to buffer the bitter temps. Some people will place a drop light under the tarp as well.

 

[HeyEng]

Welcome to TFP! We go through the same thing here, minus the "no pump" issue of course. But you should be fine to cover the equipment pad. It takes consistent, very cold temps to really impact our plumbing, but to be safe I would cover it with a tarp or something just to buffer the bitter temps. Some people will place a drop light under the tarp as well.

The light does wonders at keeping it warm. We have two 60 watt bulbs in our tented pad and it keeps it a good 6-8 degrees warmer than the ambient air. There is an extensive post about PVC and freezing temps that is worth the time needed to read...

The Physics of Freezing and Freeze Protection

Recently, there have been a lot of questions from those living in moderate climates about using automatic freeze protection or running pumps to prevent freezing and what a pool owner should do when temperatures drop so I thought it might be useful to have a thread which dealt with the issue from...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[TK Knoxville]

Thank y’all for the great advice.

Update: The motor shaft was seized. Freed that up, reassembled, turned it on and the impeller sheared off. Left it removed. I’m guessing this setup is 10-15 years old (I moved in 5 years ago) so good on the old Hayward for that!
I’ll still tent and heat until I get the new pump installed. 2 years ago I had 4” deep ice in the shallow end and survived that somehow... ?
Went with a (much cheaper and highly rated online) XtremepowerUS 2HP Inground Pool Pump 220V Dual Speed
I’ll update if there’re any problems with this pump in the future.
Definitely will make a donation and order a T-shirt, hat or something to help support this site. Great community and resources.
Thanks again!

 

[wireform]

I guess the bulbs in conversation are the old incandescent 60 watts as the newer bulbs give no beneficial heat. You may have a hard time finding them since it's illegal in some places to have them on the shelf.

 

[Bama Rambler]

If you don't have some incandescent bulbs, you can go to a farm store and buy a heat lamp that will work fine.