Last season what I did was to drain the water to just below the eyeball jet, because I had been wanting to repair a slow leak in it (which, with the help of the TFP people here, I did). I also disconnected my SWG, and drained the water our of my sand filter, pump, and SWG. I think I moved the SWG and pump to be under my patio cover, but I think I left the sand filter where it was because of how heavy it is with the sand in it.
This winter, I'm wondering if it's worth going through this much hassle because I live in Austin, Texas where it doesn't get very cold. It's rare that it gets below freezing here, and when it does, it's generally only for part of the night, and it's only slightly below freezing. We might get zero to two occurrences in our winter where it gets down to mid twenties, or possibly lower twenties, though many winters it just doesn't get below mid twenties ever. Maybe once a decade it gets into the teens.
So would it be okay to just leave everything hooked up? I'd still like to put on my pool cover because it prevents a gigantic amount of leaves from falling into the pool, so I plan on doing that soon. I've heard that once the water gets to 60 or 65 degrees (depending on whose giving me that opinion), I can shut off the pump, and let the pool sit all winter with no pumping action.
I've also heard that if I leave the equipment hooked up, and I think it will get below freezing, maybe turn the pump back on. If so, should it run continuously until the outdoor temperature is at least 32 degrees, even if that means running it all night long? I used to have a sensor that would do that automatically back when I had an inground pool, but right now I have a much cheaper above ground pool with no such sensor, but I guess I can manually monitor the weather and turn on the pump when/if needed.
This winter, I'm wondering if it's worth going through this much hassle because I live in Austin, Texas where it doesn't get very cold. It's rare that it gets below freezing here, and when it does, it's generally only for part of the night, and it's only slightly below freezing. We might get zero to two occurrences in our winter where it gets down to mid twenties, or possibly lower twenties, though many winters it just doesn't get below mid twenties ever. Maybe once a decade it gets into the teens.
So would it be okay to just leave everything hooked up? I'd still like to put on my pool cover because it prevents a gigantic amount of leaves from falling into the pool, so I plan on doing that soon. I've heard that once the water gets to 60 or 65 degrees (depending on whose giving me that opinion), I can shut off the pump, and let the pool sit all winter with no pumping action.
I've also heard that if I leave the equipment hooked up, and I think it will get below freezing, maybe turn the pump back on. If so, should it run continuously until the outdoor temperature is at least 32 degrees, even if that means running it all night long? I used to have a sensor that would do that automatically back when I had an inground pool, but right now I have a much cheaper above ground pool with no such sensor, but I guess I can manually monitor the weather and turn on the pump when/if needed.
