Pool/solar closing questions in Sacramento area

[Urbandweller]

Hi - this is my first year with a pool that came with a house and thanks to this website have figured out the equipment and how to care for it.
Is there anything I need to do to prepare my pool for winter other than drain the solar heater and add chlorine manually if the water is too cold for SWG?

Is this the correct procedure for solar - open the inflow spigot at the solar and after it completely drains open the cap nearest the inflow? Then I close the spigot and leave the cap off for winter? Do I need to open the spigot on the return side as well at any point?

My solar has a manual valve on the inflow and a manual valve on the return (there is a check valve after the manual return valve as well) - should I close them off or leave them open - theoretically once I disable solar in the control panel the automatic valve should never switch to solar anyway. I'm worried if I close them off and somehow water gets diverted to solar that can cause problems as there will be nowhere for it to flow.
Hope that makes sense.

Thanks!

 

[kimkats]

I hope this link is helpful: Closing an In Ground Pool - Trouble Free Pool Do you get hard freezes over extended periods of time?

 

[Urbandweller]

I hope this link is helpful: Closing an In Ground Pool - Trouble Free Pool Do you get hard freezes over extended periods of time?

Thanks! This is my first winter here but from what I read there should be no hard freezes. It's Usda agricultural zone 9b. I don't think I'll need to do everything in the link. I'll do some more reading.

 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

Don't remove the "caps". Those are vacuum relief valves. Just open both hose bibbs and let the system drain. Leave those hose bibb valves open for winter & close them in spring when you're ready to restart the solar.