Winter questions

[voidpointer]

Hey folks, I still haven't hit my first anniversary with my pool yet (it finished March 2023) so I haven't really had to go through a full winter experience yet. I wanted to take a moment to make sure I'm prepared for a freeze, if it does come. Last thing I want to do is panic and not know what to do.

I did find a few threads about preventing equipment damage due to freezing weather. I'm in Dallas, Texas so I don't really winterize my pool. I have (and plan to) kept it open all year so far.

I have checked freeze protection in iaqualink and the following are programmed to come on: Filter pump, spa, cleaner, slide, bubblers, sheer dscnt

I feel like I can turn off a few of these, but I want to check first:

I have a feature pump that controls the slide and sheers. I heard that it's best to just drain the feature pump and turn it off during the winter. But I'm not sure if this is necessary. I assume the exposed pipes won't have water in them this way. If this is recommended, I can remove these 2 from freeze protection. This will also affect some scheduling since I currently have the feature pump turn on for 5 minutes every morning (this is just to keep them flushed out).

I'm not sure why Cleaner is enabled. I read that since it is tapped into the filter pump returns that it always has water moving through it anyway, so I think I can tick this one off. Pool builder probably had it set up this way. So far I've kept my cleaner schedule (2 hours daily in the morning) on. I was planning to keep it on all year, but if I should turn it off in the colder weather let me know.

Bubblers I think I need to keep enabled since that's at least 1 exposed return PVC that could freeze.

I also read that people wrap exposed pipes with some shiny insulation stuff from home depot. Should I do this? I was planning to paint the PVC for protection from UV during the summer, but this might work as a substitute for that which also helps in the winter too, right? I also saw people use tarps but not sure if I should do that with a heater and running equipment? The heater we sometimes use for the spa.

For skimmers, I heard people stuff pool noodle pieces in there. I'm not sure if this is only for people that close their pools.

Anything else I'm forgetting that would help me be prepared for another Texas "snowmageddon" or just long freeze in general?

 

[PoolGate]

Either close your pool properly or use the freeze protection as designed. Picking and choosing what to winterize is going to get you in trouble.

 

[voidpointer]

Part of my post is trying to understand what "freeze protection as designed" means. I'm just trying to learn what considerations to make and how to make sure I have freeze protection configured properly. Not sure what your comment is supposed to tell me.

 

[PoolGate]

You add whatever device has the potential to be damaged by freezing to the freeze protect program and it's turned on along with the pump then the temp drops.

 

[voidpointer]

And what about the cleaner, insulation, and skimmers that I also asked about? Do folks do any of that stuff? I already knew how freeze protection worked, and that wasn't the purpose of my post. Maybe I'm being misunderstood, but I'm not trying to use stuff outside of how it was designed and I'm not picking and choosing, I'm learning.

 

[PoolGate]

And what about the cleaner, insulation, and skimmers that I also asked about? Do folks do any of that stuff? I already knew how freeze protection worked, and that wasn't the purpose of my post. Maybe I'm being misunderstood, but I'm not trying to use stuff outside of how it was designed and I'm not picking and choosing, I'm learning.

Again and not to be blunt, that was what I was saying in my first post. Picking and choosing what to winterize is not a good idea. I winterize fully and do not worry about any freeze damage. Last time TX got unseasonable freezing a LOT of pool owners suffered major damage. Many of them now winterize. I am not sure there is a set answer to partially winterizing.

For the cleaner - Is this your cleaner port that turns on and runs the water powered cleaner in the pool? I would remove the cleaner and make sure the port is in the freeze protection program.

Insulation - No one I know puts insulation on any of the pool lines. The freeze program runs water through the lines which should keep them from freezing.

Skimmer - For a winterized pool, compressible items are usually put in the skimmer so if the water in the skimmer freezes is has someplace to go besides cracking your skimmer housing.

Anything where water is must be protected from freezing. That includes things like bubblers.

 

[ajw22]

There are two ways to keep pool pipes from getting freeze damage:

• Flowing water does not freeze so keep water flowing through the pipes when temperature is below freezing
• Blow out the pipe and have no water in it - i.e. close the pipe or the entire pool for the winter.

You need to analyze your pool plumbing since every pool is different and determine what you think will work best for your climate and risk tolerance.

"Freeze Protection" modes try and keep water flowing to prevent freezing. It works most of the time and is not as risk free as simply closing the pool for the winter.

You can close and blow out water feature lines for the winter. You need to make sure all water is out of the lines.

Your reading is getting you confused about the techniques other people are doing for their situations. You cannot stuff pool noodles in a skimmer for a pool you are keeping open using "Freeze Protection". I suggest you focus less on what others are doing and more on your situation.

 

[Newdude]

So we learned some things in the Texas Snowmageddon a couple years back (El Arroyo called it Snovid-19 ).

Keeping the water moving was all that was needed until the power stopped.

You need to do an emergency equipment drain trial run (or two) when it's nice out because it will be pitch black and snowing/blowing sideways when the real time comes.

In case of power failure, the below ground pipes likely won't freeze before the power returns, but there are also no guarantees. However, draining the above ground plumbing/equipment is likely enough to survive unharmed.

 

[JJ_Tex]

Hello fellow Prosperionian (or are we Prosperites, I cant remember).

Most people here have the following strategy:

1. Let the system's freeze protection work, which involves rotating through all of your different features to keep water flowing through them. Yours is setup that way now, and I would keep it that way. If you really want to take things off, make sure you have a solid plan to drain the water and winterize anything you want to remove from freeze protection.

Freeze Protection will protect you from any freezing weather we get. Even during snowmageddon the street behind me was on a grid that was not impacted by the blackouts. As I was standing on my raised wall busing ice and trying to keep my pool going, I could see the 3 pools behind me were just running away just fine with no ice or any damage. It was quite depressing.

2. Have an Oh Crud plan for draining and winterizing if you lose power or have an equipment failure during a deep freeze. This generally involves:

• Turn off the breaker to the pool equipment
• Drain every piece of equipment using the plug(s) at the bottom of your pumps, heater, filter, etc.

The above is easy to do in about 20 minutes, as long as you know where all of the plugs are located. If you are trying to figure everything out at 2am in the pitch black, you are going to have a bad day so locate everything and have a plan in advance.

 

[voidpointer]

Thank you JJ and Newdude, you gave me exactly the kind of information and confidence I was looking for. I must have not worded my post very constructively based on some of the responses I got. I'm being told to spend less time worrying what others are doing but that's exactly how I've learned everything I know up to this point. I understand that if we look at things nationally, people do things drastically different. But here in North Dallas, we don't usually shut down our pools so I needed to get the kind of advice you provided.

I'll keep freeze protection going and figure out how to drain water from my Jandy pumps. My cartridge filter I already know how to drain. Losing power is definitely the scary part I think and being able to react to that before my fingers freeze off would be nice

Thanks everyone.

 

[Newdude]

I must have not worded my post very constructively based on some of the responses I got.

I believe they were just providing full disclosure / context that there are risks involved with not blowing the lines.

Maybe this is the year it's 20 degrees for 2 weeks and power is out the whole time. Probably not, but maybe.

P.s. don't forget the heater plug(s). Download all the manuals if you don't have them handy. Then do a practice run so it's not your first rodeo at 2 AM and a wind chill temp in the single digits.