Fortunately, I have an electric pool cleaner and I place it in and clean it up about 2 hours later.
What if I just don't cover my pool this winter?
- Thread starter dinman
- Start date
blakeusa
In The Industry
I am in CT and do not cover my pool.
Close all properly and winterize lines. Drain below returns or as much as needed to allow snow and rain to accumulate without coming up to the coping. If it does it can and will pop your coping off. That is the frozen pool water... so take more water out than needed and or start pumping out if it looks too high.
Just open and clean as normal. Without a lock loop or similar cover most debris and such ends up in the pool anyway as most covers tear, rip or get submerged.
I put a silt fence around my pool to help keep the blowing debris out.
It works.
Close all properly and winterize lines. Drain below returns or as much as needed to allow snow and rain to accumulate without coming up to the coping. If it does it can and will pop your coping off. That is the frozen pool water... so take more water out than needed and or start pumping out if it looks too high.
Just open and clean as normal. Without a lock loop or similar cover most debris and such ends up in the pool anyway as most covers tear, rip or get submerged.
I put a silt fence around my pool to help keep the blowing debris out.
It works.
Do yourself a huge favour, get a safety cover, you can close your pool sooner, save on power and not a single leaf will enter the pool, the built in filtering of the mesh cover will keep anything bigger then small particles out of your pool, you open in spring easy, dry it out, and put it away. The added safety of a cover that an elephant can walk across means you have no worries at all, and can be put on in summer if you go away for extended periods with no fear of anything falling in accidentally.
Best investment I made to date for our pool.
Best investment I made to date for our pool.
Here is my question. Just how much damage can be created in northern climate if the pool is left uncovered? Does it take years of the lining?
I cover mine due to the trees around me. My buddy down the road doesn't cover his but, he has no trees around either. He doesn't have much to clean out in the spring but usually has to do a pretty heavy shock to clear it up as I only have to pull the cover and do a vacuum and check the chlorine level.
Dan
Dan
I think there is a good possibility that the stuff that accumulates in the pool could cause damage. Things like twigs and small branches from trees, that poke holes in the relatively inexpensive cover, could poke holes instead in an expensive liner. It also keeps sunlight out of the pool, that causes algae in the spring, before you uncover. As for water in the cover, you can buy or rent a pump that is suitable for drawing the water out of the cover. You should have a mesh filter that goes on the feed for the pump, so stuff isn't drawn into the pump. If you pump through a finer filter, you can sneak a hose under the cover and dump the water into the pool. If you buy a pump, you can use it in the fall to pump the pool level down before covering.
I live in Middle TN, so fairly mild winters. Occasionally get a little snow, and Jan/Feb have some awfully chilly weather (below freezing many nights). My family is highly active, we are outside all the time playing sports..3 boys and a golden retriever mix, and have a nice covered patio...I want the pool lights to come on when the sun sets, and we can enjoy the backyard all winter. No joke, we were playing "snow soccer" last year, we are literally outside unless it is raining. In early December, I plan to blow out the lines and drain the heater, and otherwise leave the pool uncovered. I have my net to fish out leaves/debris. Pour in a gallon of bleach as needed, especially as March starts to warm up some. Drain water if it storms. I consider these three items to be minor upkeep for cold weather, and take less time than it takes to sweep/vacuum the house or do a load of laundry. We put in a pool to swim, but almost as important is just the ambience of it in the backyard, and I look forward to having the fire pit going, throwing a football, and letting the pool lights glow 
Nice! I guess from that i can say its work for a nice water view all year. I think for me it might be opening pool early and the expense of it in the spring. To cold to swim but warm enough to grow algae: (I live in Middle TN, so fairly mild winters. Occasionally get a little snow, and Jan/Feb have some awfully chilly weather (below freezing many nights). My family is highly active, we are outside all the time playing sports..3 boys and a golden retriever mix, and have a nice covered patio...I want the pool lights to come on when the sun sets, and we can enjoy the backyard all winter. No joke, we were playing "snow soccer" last year, we are literally outside unless it is raining. In early December, I plan to blow out the lines and drain the heater, and otherwise leave the pool uncovered. I have my net to fish out leaves/debris. Pour in a gallon of bleach as needed, especially as March starts to warm up some. Drain water if it storms. I consider these three items to be minor upkeep for cold weather, and take less time than it takes to sweep/vacuum the house or do a load of laundry. We put in a pool to swim, but almost as important is just the ambience of it in the backyard, and I look forward to having the fire pit going, throwing a football, and letting the pool lights glow
My chlorine level in the spring is low enough to not register on a normal test. Since the cover is on and the pool is dark, there is no algae growth. I usually dose the water up to the normal chlorine level, start the pump and vacuum up the small amount of "dust" that settles into the bottom from the small leaks in the cover. Some years I have put chlorine in and start the pump a day or two before I pull the cover. A lot of this depends on my available time and the water depth of the pool at the time. Normally, I have to pump out about 6" of water to open the pool. (which reminds me, I have to go do that again tonight as the skimmer was over flowing again this morning)
Dan
sktn77a
Gold Supporter
If it weren't for the safety concerns and cost of running a pump all winter, I would leave my pool open. As it is, it costs about $100 a month to operate my 1hp pump and my wife is paranoid about safety, so I just winterize, cover (mesh safety cover) and spend a couple of days in the spring shocking the ____ out of it and vacuuming all the gunk.