I have decided not to "close" my pool for the upcoming winter since I live here in the Florida panhandle and our winters are not too bad(nobody actually does close down here). I have read alot of posts here on the forum talking about winter pool care but I still have some simple questions. Mainly, at what point temp. wise can I drop down my pump time and how much can I drop down on the pump time? I have already gone to about 14 hours on low speed of a 2 speed pump and our temps here have just now gotten cool. The other thing is the daily chlorine routine. I know that I can keep testing the water to see where the FC is , but I don't want to have to keep doing that during the off season. What should I be expecting to do with the chlorine routine now that my water is 70ish? Do I have to keep adding daily? (using 10% bleach). Also, how important is CYA at this point as I think my CYA level has dropped a few ppm's with the crazy amounts of rain we've had here last week. (over 15 inches and I have had to drain a TON of water from the pool). I may have less than 30ppm on the CYA but I don't have any reagent right now to test that. Should I worry about the CYA this time of year or wait till spring?
winter pool care(non closed pool)
- Thread starter budysr
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I dont know what the best procedure is, but I live in Charleston, SC and have also decided not to "close" my pool.
Based on the information I got here, I am doing the following:
Nothing.
I have an outlet that turns the pump on if the temperature drops below 35, and thats it. I plan to run the vacumn robot if i see a ton of leaves on the bottom of the pool, other than that, im doing nothing. After becoming a firm believer that BBB can clear up pretty much any dirty pool, im not afraid to let it go to heck over the winter.
Based on the information I got here, I am doing the following:
Nothing.
I have an outlet that turns the pump on if the temperature drops below 35, and thats it. I plan to run the vacumn robot if i see a ton of leaves on the bottom of the pool, other than that, im doing nothing. After becoming a firm believer that BBB can clear up pretty much any dirty pool, im not afraid to let it go to heck over the winter.
How much attention an open pool needs over the winter depends mostly on the water temperature. The cooler the water the easier it is. One rule of thumb is that you need one hour of pump run time a day for every 10 degrees above zero. That needs some adjustment for each pool but the basic idea is sound. Chlorine demand goes down noticably as the water gets colder and the days get shorter. For many people this means adding bleach only every other day or perhaps even less. If you cover the pool chlorine demand goes way down and you might be able to add chlorine only every month or so.
Thats about what I figured, so sounds like I am about right with the pump time for now since I'm on low speed.
Jason, didn't you say there was a certain water temp. that Algae is no longer a threat? If so, does that mean that chlorine is no longer important underneath that water temp.?
Jason, didn't you say there was a certain water temp. that Algae is no longer a threat? If so, does that mean that chlorine is no longer important underneath that water temp.?
By and large you will get very little algae when the water temperature is below 60 and hardly any at all below 50. But there can be exceptions. There are rare (around here) kinds of algae that can grow inside of ice. In practice covered below 60 or uncovered below 50 will normally stay algae free.
Yes, generally 60 but don't take it to the bank as a hard and fast number. Once established, I've had algae in my pool at 50 degrees or less.
That said, If you have a clean pool below 60 algae will have a hard time getting a foothold. Your pool will require much less chlorine as a result. How much less can best be determined simply by observing your pool and reducing (gradually) the Cl and filtering time to it's lowest level possible as long as the water looks nice.
Thanks for the replies guys. I think I have a good idea of what to expect for the winter months. Just less of what I was doing all summer.