Pump and PVC Melted under Blanket w Halogen Light during TN deep freeze 2024

[WhitB08]

status updates anyone? We reached about 17 degrees here in middle Tennessee today and we are going to -2 tonight and rebounding to 30 by 3pm tomorrow with sunny skies. My water temperature at the pad shows 34 degrees. Everything at the pad other than the heater is insulated and tarped. I’m super concerned for tonight!

 

[Bperry]

status updates anyone? We reached about 17 degrees here in middle Tennessee today and we are going to -2 tonight and rebounding to 30 by 3pm tomorrow with sunny skies. My water temperature at the pad shows 34 degrees. Everything at the pad other than the heater is insulated and tarped. I’m super concerned for tonight!

My forecast 2.5 hours east of you says we got another week of sub32 highs. But our forecasts are never very accurate more than a few hours out. Some of the ice on mine did melt a little in the sun today. And I was able to drive out of the neighborhood in 4WD and make the neighbors jealous by getting more milk and bread from the grocery store.

 

[Apsuhead]

My pool was mostly frozen this morning. I got out my pole and broke up the thin ice around the skimmer. I also turned the VS pump rpms up for the day. Normally it runs at a low speed for 22 hrs a day. I manually turn it up but it resets at midnight back to lower rpms. The sun came out today and melted some spots but it will be cold again tonight. As long as the power doesn’t go out, I’ll be fine.

 

[wireform]

My pool was mostly frozen this morning. I got out my pole and broke up the thin ice around the skimmer. I also turned the VS pump rpms up for the day. Normally it runs at a low speed for 22 hrs a day. I manually turn it up but it resets at midnight back to lower rpms. The sun came out today and melted some spots but it will be cold again tonight. As long as the power doesn’t go out, I’ll be fine.

I'd keep the rpm high for the duration of the cold snap.

 

[Apsuhead]

The temp is near 0 this morning, but it’s is supposed to be sunny and near 32 today. Pool is pretty much frozen solid except for the skimmer and near the returns. I broke up some more ice in front of the skimmer this morning and turned up the Rpm’s after I got up. Pump is pulling from my single skimmer and the main drains. There is talk of conserving electricity today because of the strain on the power grid. Hopefully no rolling blackouts

 

[WhitB08]

-7 actual temp at one point here. I slept for maybe 2 hours last night. I feel like I’m fighting a loosing battle with the projected temperatures and frozen precipitation Friday and Saturday. My pool is also icing over. NEVER leaving it unwinterized again! I can’t believe I did this for the first several years with no problem. I have winterized the last 4 or 5 years, but left it open to do an AA treatment this year.

 

[Apsuhead]

I’m planning to do another AA treatment before spring as well. Trying to let my FC drop down low over the winter before I start. It worked great last time, but slowly the staining came back.
I like living on the edge, I will always keep my pool running during the winter. I built a nice equipment shed so I could drain and blow out the lines pretty easy in a flash if we ever lost power during a freeze.

 

[OKLagoon]

I have a waterfall and some deck jets on my pool. Left it running in freeze protect mode as this was the recommendation from the builder.

One of the skimmers froze up in a way that caused an ice dam and it began to suck some air. This resulted in the pump slightly losing prime and the deck jets of water not clearing the deck into the pool, so essentially it was running itself dry and creating a little ice pond in the yard. The water was freezing so fast I had very little time to react. I chose to shut down all of the equipment, drain it, left plugs out, and vacuumed/blew out the lines and equipment as best I could.

Now, I'm not sure whether to start it back up once the temps clear freezing, or leave it this way since the overnight temps are still forecast to be well below freezing. I'm leaning toward leaving it the way it is until we're well past the freezing temps, because I'm afraid we'll have another arctic blast and we'll end up in the same spot again.

Appreciate any advice.

 

[Mdragger88]

It was 1 degree last night here- the coldest it will get I believe.
yesterday TVA issued requests to reduce unnecessary electricity usage over the next day or so to prevent having to schedule outages. We are not on TVA power but most of our Tennessee neighbors are so ya’ll be prepared for the possibility.
There are many here in northern MS that choose not to winterize- I am not one of those for this reason (even if I had an inground pool). When having to worry about heating my home & taking care of my family in these adverse conditions dealing with the pool is the last thing I want to do. Each year we have one or two of these deep freeze instances & they are exhausting enough by themselves! Hopefully all will come through unscathed

 

[Lilypad]

I completely agree about the stress. I am not young…past retirement age and can't be
out breaking up ice in frigid temps or messing with generators like many are able to do.
I did the same thing to prepare my pool this time as I did in the Great Texas Freeze 3 years
ago. Took about 15 minutes and I did it when it was 65 degrees, right before the temps
plummeted.

Turned off the breaker.
Released pressure on filter & removed it's drain plug.
Removed drain plugs on pump.
Into skimmer put closed liter bottle filled 1/2- 3/4 full with Marine/RV anti-freeze.

And walked away…..Surface is frozen this morning.
Will keep the system off until we get past more cold temps.
We'll see how it looks tomorrow and hopefully it's as successful as last time I did this.

Hope everyone's home and families also got through this OK.

 

[newdude]

Everyone remember to allow LOTS of time for the plumbing to thaw if there is any thought of it having done so. A slug of ice sucked through the plumbing/system would cause big damage.

There's no race to get everything working and algae won't be a concern anytime soon when it 'warms up' to 40s/50s.

 

[mas985]

Into skimmer put closed liter bottle with Marine/RV anti-freeze.

Is there any air in the bottle? A closed bottle completely full may not compress enough if there is ice in the skimmer.

OR did you mean that you poured anti-freeze in the skimmer?

 

[Lilypad]

Is there any air in the bottle? A closed bottle completely full may not compress enough if there is ice in the skimmer.

OR did you mean that you poured anti-freeze in the skimmer?

Bottle is 1/2 to 3/4 full to allow for compression and, no I didn’t pour it into the skimmer. Thanks for
checking! I edited my post above.

Just checked and pool and skimmers look good so far. Waiting for thaw.

 

[Apsuhead]

It is 7 degrees this morning and my pool is still freezing more each day. It will finally get above freezing Monday.

 

[Apsuhead]

My luck ran out. I woke up this morning and the pool was frozen and the pump was off. The electric breaker for the pump had switched off overnight. I’m not sure what caused it but I ran out and covered the pump and put some warm lights under there. The skimmer only had a light freeze so I busted the ice and dropped some balls in there for now. I believe the snow of the roof of the pump house had been melting in the sun and the water had been draining into the equipment shed and refreezing around the pump. I can’t even get to the pump drains until it melts. Any advice? I guess I should go ahead and drain the sand filter. It’s 11 degrees right now.

 

[newdude]

I'd tarp the whole thing, preferably doubled up and get a few lights going in there. Do you have a HF nearby to run and grab a cheapo large tarp ?

 

[Apsuhead]

No HF, it closed down recently to move to a different location. I put 2 halogen work lights under there and covered all the equipment with several blankets. It seems very warm under there. I just have one more cold day/night before it warms up. I just wish I knew exactly what happened and where that water came from. Hopefully no major damage to anything.

 

[newdude]

I just wish I knew exactly what happened

I was just yesterday thinking of the VS phantom trip issue and hoping nobody had any. I kept it to myself not to jinx anyone.

 

[Bperry]

No HF, it closed down recently to move to a different location. I put 2 halogen work lights under there and covered all the equipment with several blankets. It seems very warm under there. I just have one more cold day/night before it warms up. I just wish I knew exactly what happened and where that water came from. Hopefully no major damage to anything.

It’s been really cold for almost a week. The “freeze protection” is mislabeled and should really be named “freeze delay”. Water freezes when it gets to 32F and so my theory is that some ice crystals near the surface of the exposed pipes might start to form and become lodged in the plumbing which can slow the flow down enough to allow more ice crystals to form even faster which keeps the process going.

 

[Apsuhead]

It seems to be really warm under there. My swg panel read 32 degrees the other day when I checked. It says 60 now.