staying on top of the leafe problem at closing/ winterizing heater

[HeidiP]

My online pool supplier is out of leaf nets so I cant use that during closing - but I'm going INSANE with the # of leaves making their way into the pool. ERGH!
scheduled to close this weekend, but tons of leaves in the pool and the water is down in the 50's.
So do i crank it to 70 and get in to scoop or am i asking for algae problems at that point? and if i crank it up, should i wait till the water drops back to 60 and below? my heater raises the temp pretty quickly. shortly after that i will need to winterize my gas heater. Looking into hiring someone to just winterize the equipment so I can do the rest of the close myself. I don't want to have a swamp in the spring, and i don't want to blow up my gas heater.

Any input so much appreciated. My winter cover should be here before the week is out - if not, closing will have to happen during the week next week.

 

[Plastered]

I can sympathize. I have an inground pool and I've been using a leaf skimmer like this one to get them off the bottom. Very time consuming and annoying but at least it's been effective getting the bigger leaves out so I can just vacuum the remaining small debris at closing (which I plan for tomorrow). I've pulled the equivalent of a yard bag out already this past week.

Leaf nets don't seem practical to me but admittedly I don't know how to solve this going forward if it's recommended to hold off closing until water drops below 60^oF. The pool is full of leaves well before then.

 

[Chemnut]

If you have a major leaf problem I would close the pool mid September and either get a safety cover or winter cover/after bags. I close my oool every Labor Day weekend, regardless of water temp and it's crystal clear by the time the ice melts.