It's rare but we are expecting 13 degree temps in GA at Christmas. I haven't closed my pool and would prefer not to but now what do I do? Just keep my filter going for 48 hours? Cover equipment? Or a full winterize? Thank you !
Surprise frigid temps!
- Thread starter whittenorganizedchaos
- Start date
Hey Chaos !!!
You'll be fine. I checked and It's just a couple of days and it will take that long for the previously 40 something degree dirt to cool. So it will protect your underground plumbing and insulate the pool itstelf to help delay the water temperature dropping.
Keep the water moving and you'll be fine. If you'd like to go really overboard you could MacGyver a tarp tent over the equipment and use one or two shop lights with old school light bulbs in there. They will put off enough heat to keep the inside above freezing.
You'll be fine. I checked and It's just a couple of days and it will take that long for the previously 40 something degree dirt to cool. So it will protect your underground plumbing and insulate the pool itstelf to help delay the water temperature dropping.
Keep the water moving and you'll be fine. If you'd like to go really overboard you could MacGyver a tarp tent over the equipment and use one or two shop lights with old school light bulbs in there. They will put off enough heat to keep the inside above freezing.
Yes, it's the equipment I was more concerned about. Should I be concerned?
The concern is what you do if the power goes out. Pool owners in Texas experienced this exact scenario not too long ago. You effectively can’t winterize if the power goes out during an extreme cold snap so you either need an alternative power or pumping source or to winterize prior to the cold. Your risk will largely depend on how cold it is leading up to the extreme cold.
A reduced risk plan is to be ready to drain your filter and pump(s) in the event your power goes off and hope the ground and pool water retain enough heat to avoid hard freezing in the below grade plumbing. So you need to know how to drain the filter and pump as well as things like solar heat, SWCG, heater etc.. Not rocket science, but not something you want to have to figure out at 3 AM when the power goes out and you don’t own long underwear or gloves!
A reduced risk plan is to be ready to drain your filter and pump(s) in the event your power goes off and hope the ground and pool water retain enough heat to avoid hard freezing in the below grade plumbing. So you need to know how to drain the filter and pump as well as things like solar heat, SWCG, heater etc.. Not rocket science, but not something you want to have to figure out at 3 AM when the power goes out and you don’t own long underwear or gloves!
dailygenesis
Gold Supporter
Glad to see someone else is contemplating this. I'm a new pool owner keeping it open for the winter and also facing a big cold snap starting next Thursday here in Oklahoma. Since we'll be pretty warm going into it and it won't last too long this time, I'm not too worried, but I am trying to get my game plan together to prepare for all scenarios and for any more weather we might have later in the season. I hope it's not hijacking this thread to throw in my two cents and ask for any feedback.
I purchased a 12x20 concrete curing blanket (basically an insulated tarp) that can cover the entire equipment pad. My plan is to put that on Wednesday and then keep all the equipment running and hope we don't lose power. If we lose power, I'm planning to pull the plugs, keep the equipment covered and hope for the best.
That said, I was thinking about getting something to serve as a heat source underneath the tarp. Has anyone ever used a flat panel heater designed for chicken coups like this -> https://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Product...9K1JI/ref=psdc_3238155011_t2_B0B51BSBNG?th=1# -- just wondering if that would work or if it would be too much heat. Mostly I see people recommending shop lights with standard incandescent bulbs. Does that mean just a regular light bulb, not a special heating bulb?
I purchased a 12x20 concrete curing blanket (basically an insulated tarp) that can cover the entire equipment pad. My plan is to put that on Wednesday and then keep all the equipment running and hope we don't lose power. If we lose power, I'm planning to pull the plugs, keep the equipment covered and hope for the best.
That said, I was thinking about getting something to serve as a heat source underneath the tarp. Has anyone ever used a flat panel heater designed for chicken coups like this -> https://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Product...9K1JI/ref=psdc_3238155011_t2_B0B51BSBNG?th=1# -- just wondering if that would work or if it would be too much heat. Mostly I see people recommending shop lights with standard incandescent bulbs. Does that mean just a regular light bulb, not a special heating bulb?
Correct. They put off a good amount of heat and it doesn't take much to keep under the tent from freezing. That chicken coop warmer looks great. If it won't hurt small animals, it certainly isn't going to melt the PVC or equipment.
We have a coop heater. What a great idea. Thanks for the tips on learning how to drain .
dailygenesis
Gold Supporter
It says it maintains a surface temp of 130F. Does anyone think that would be too high. My concern would be warming the PVC joints too much to where they start to weaken.
BTW, I've looked for incandescent bulbs and they are getting really hard to find. I think they might not even be able to be sold after next year.
It won't be directly touching anything, and more than a few inches away it won't be anywhere near hot.
The last two years I would just have the pump run 24/7 during the cold. This year, just a few days ago I brought the water down to 4" below the return's, disconnected all the equipment using the unions and took my vac and blew out all the lines. Not counting the draining the whole process took roughly 30 minutes.
I am in North Atlanta and Saturday's low keeps changing but was at 7 degrees but the high is above freezing for now.
Also there is " talk" about a snow storm but who knows..My rule of thumb is if the local weather folks say " OMG 18" of snow" plan on sunbathing but if they say " just a dusting" prepare for snow
I have winterized mine by dropping water level below the tiles about 6" and drained filter and pump and all lines.
If your pad is above water level and we do lose power would probably be OK draining the filter and pump and just opening all valves so water in the pipes is below ground level in GA..Assuming we don't have temps in the teens all day and night.
Oh the most important step ( and this is big ) is get 6 to 8 gallons of Milk and 3 or 4 loafs of bread
Also there is " talk" about a snow storm but who knows..My rule of thumb is if the local weather folks say " OMG 18" of snow" plan on sunbathing but if they say " just a dusting" prepare for snow
I have winterized mine by dropping water level below the tiles about 6" and drained filter and pump and all lines.
If your pad is above water level and we do lose power would probably be OK draining the filter and pump and just opening all valves so water in the pipes is below ground level in GA..Assuming we don't have temps in the teens all day and night.
Oh the most important step ( and this is big ) is get 6 to 8 gallons of Milk and 3 or 4 loafs of bread
First time pool owner here in Texas....have Intermatic Timer and a Pentair UltraTemp heater. It's 29 outside right now so I went outside to see if pump was running on the Intermatic's Freeze Mode, which it was, however with the Pentair heater was not running even though it's set to 77 (current water temp at 67). Should that be running also?
It's an electric model, so I was wondering if it just doesn't bother to run under certain atmospheric temps as it would be not so efficient as a heat pump.
It's an electric model, so I was wondering if it just doesn't bother to run under certain atmospheric temps as it would be not so efficient as a heat pump.
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BowserB
Silver Supporter
- Jul 29, 2018
- 777
- Pool Size
- 15000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
I'm in Katy--just west of Houston--and the big Texas freeze was my first experience with freezing equipment. Pentair's freeze protection turned on the filter pump as set (38 degrees) However the Pentair Whisperflo pump used for water features, I learned later, did not have freeze protection. Our natural gas standby generator kept our power on for an accumulated 50 hours of grid failure, but apparently Comcast did not have a backup generator for its local hubs, and we lost Internet. Long story short (too late...already too long?) by the time I was aware of what had happened with freezing temps night and day, the Whisperflo pump was frozen. However freeze protection kept the Intelliflo filter pump working. Pump, filter, UV-C tank, Mastertemp heater made it through just fine---thanks to the standby generator providing power. I think our longest continuous grid outage was around 8 hours, with a total of 50 hours over the course of the event. The Whisperflo water feature pump galute was the only victim from the freeze. It took a while to find a replacement.
This time I plan to shut off and drain the Whisperflo and rely again on the filter pump running. As you know, in spite of billions more giving to ERCOT, the Texas grid is no less vulnerable to cold than it was in 2021, so if you have power concerns and no standby generator, you might want to think about draining your equipment. The forecast is for a lot shorter freeze time than 2021, so we may be OK with power. After the big freeze, at least a half dozen of my neighbors got standby generators over the following six months.
How do you have your standby generator configured...do you just take it to your equipment pad and it connects to the breaker box?
dailygenesis
Gold Supporter
Just commiserating here -- the Siberian front hit us at 4am this morning. Temps dropped to about 4 degrees with super strong winds gusts. Woke up to find that my tarp had blown around and knocked loose the pressure relief valve on top of the filter canister so there was water spewing out. Not great, but got that shut off. So far, everything is still running. Have a sensor under the tarp showing it's around 30 degrees under there. Trying to figure out some better tarp configurations as I don't really have any way to attach it to anything on the brick wall side so wind still whips through on that side. I thought about installing some anchors into the wall to hook it to. Maybe I'll try to attempt that but pretty hard to do any work out there right now with the cold and the wind.
On top of all that, the heater in our house stopped working! Merry Christmas everyone!
On top of all that, the heater in our house stopped working! Merry Christmas everyone!
Goodness !!! When it rains it pours. And that was a similar problem last time. When it came time to worry about the pool, there was often bigger fish to fry.
Hang in there the best you can.
- Nov 7, 2018
- 1,049
- Pool Size
- 14000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
I used a chicken coop warmer last year and between it and two heating lamps, it didn't get colder than 26 degrees...even with several nights of below 0 temps. This year, the chicken coop warmer has disappeared so I just have the two heat lamps. It's been in the single digits now for about 8 hours and it's currently 31 in my equipment area. It is a pretty large area (I can walk inside the tented area) so an incandescent bulb wouldn't do much (for me).
-Edit... Glad you were able to catch the spewing water. Had you missed that by more than an hour or so, I can't imagine the mess you would have had. I hope you get the heat back in the house, though...ours is running more than it has in a long time!
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Here we go again, huh? Winds hit Tulsa around 6am. It was 42 degrees at 4:30am…it is now 5. More importantly, my pool water temp is dropping quickly. We made it through the Feb 21 storm but with damage to some above ground pipes and two spa jet seats. That pool was larger, deeper, and sheltered from the wind. My current smaller pool is dropping temperature much faster without the wind protection. There are so many factors in play. We constructed a PVC frame so that we could tent the equipment pad. There is currently an incandescent work lamp keeping it warm for now. I do have a cattle trough floating heater that I might place a few feet out from the opening of the skimmer if the water gets slushy. We’ve rigged a board with hooks to hold it in place. It’ll be a last ditch effort.
We plan to keep the water flowing as long as that is possible. We’ll drain the equipment at the pad and add pool noodles to the skimmer if everything goes south.
Y’all be careful out there! During the frantic race to shut everything down in ‘21 when one pump finally started slushing up (it took 5 or 6 days of freezing temps), my husband slipped on the pool deck and cut his head on the metal landscape edging. He was OK, but it scared us to death and put the pool problems in perspective for us.
We plan to keep the water flowing as long as that is possible. We’ll drain the equipment at the pad and add pool noodles to the skimmer if everything goes south.
Y’all be careful out there! During the frantic race to shut everything down in ‘21 when one pump finally started slushing up (it took 5 or 6 days of freezing temps), my husband slipped on the pool deck and cut his head on the metal landscape edging. He was OK, but it scared us to death and put the pool problems in perspective for us.
dailygenesis
Gold Supporter
This is what I should have done. I thought about it a while back but never did. Either this or putting anchors in the brick wall to attach to and then draping and weighting it down around the edges. Trying to figure out if I'll attempt this now or just prepare better for the next time. It's tough right now to do anything with the tarp while it's snowing and blowing so much.
What do you do with the pool noodles? I had heard about putting a water bottle half full with pool antifreeze in the skimmer. I got some pool antifreeze just in case. But interested to learn what steps I might need to take if I have to shut it all down.
- Nov 7, 2018
- 1,049
- Pool Size
- 14000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
The pool noodles can be cut up and placed (kinda stuffed) in the skimmer. That way, if the water freezes then any expansion will be absorbed by the pool noodles as opposed to the skimmer.
Here is a great "Cliff Notes" thanks to @Texas Splash that outlines the basic steps of to do an off-the-cuff shut down. I would also start at the beginning of the thread as there is a lot of good information in it.
Featured - Freeze Preparations (TX, LA, GA, AL, FL, etc)
Out of curiosity, for a short time like this, would it be good to heat the pool up to a certain point or is that asking for more damage? Or get it to a temperature and stop heating? Sorry just thinking out loud.
www.troublefreepool.com
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