I know it early, but I need to get a jump start on winterizing/closing my pool for the season. I’ve always had someone else do the closings but would like to try to do it myself this year! Anyway, I read the article on wintering/closing! Question: I have a leaf net/cover that I will put on and remove after leaves have fallen. I also have a mesh like cover that allows water to drain through ( so no need to pump water off). Any problems with those 2 items? Also, any good tips on making this process as smooth as possible?
Winterizing/closing
- Thread starter sullihouse
- Start date
VinnyinNJ
Bronze Supporter
- Jul 20, 2022
- 1,050
- Pool Size
- 13500
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Turbo Cell (T-CELL-5)
I tried a mesh leaf net in the past with not much luck due to the amount of trees/leaves we get but others have had good luck. If the net and cover has been used in the past during closing it should be fine; I have a solid cover but it develops hols and lets water seep up and down.
I tend to get the chemical levels correct and the chlorine up higher than normal for about 2 days filtering 24/7 and then throw the winter cover on, think of it as a mini SLAM. The cover I have has a large overlap which I can bring the water level to about the return fitting, do not let the cover hang pulling the pool walls inward, the cover sits on top of the water. You'll need to pull off all the piping/tubing from the filter and winterize the filter. You'll need to plug up the return and the skimmer. The return plug looks like this: Robot or human? and the skimmer either has a plate, something similar to a Tupperwear lid or a device like this: Gizzmo Aboveground Skimmer Compensator - CST001 Personally I have only used the plate in the past and now the Tupperwear lid type - both worked great!
My method when putting on the winter cover is to put the cover on then lower the water (I do the reverse in the spring). I find it easier for me to have a high water level then lower the water, I snug it up a little and leave the area by the skimmer and return open to view what's going on as the pool drains. You must make sure anything that may contain water can deal with the water expansion. In the 20+ years that I have owned an AG pool I never had those floats under the winter cover and I have lost the pressure gauge from the filter. Winterizing the filter means you need to drain it and any controls sit in the "Winter" position; it also means the pump needs to be drained. Make sure anything that can collect water can drain easily - the pump should have a drain plug in front of its basket - unscrew and keep it off. If leaves get into the empty skimmer make sure you get rid of them.
Something I didn't mention is the ladder - I prefer to take it out of the pool. If it is the type that fills with water it will be very heavy! Remove it in stages to let the water drain out of it ... lift 6 to 8 inches and stop and let it drain - repeat!
If it sounds hard, it really isn't. Like everything else the first time you do it is time consuming and hard but after the first time you'll almost be a pro at it. If you have any questions, please ask!!!
Thanks for the advice! I know in the past, the filter and hoses, etc were stored inside the garage for the winter so I’m sure we will do that this year. Same with the ladder. Aside from balancing the water and getting the chlorine level high, do you add anything else?
VinnyinNJ
Bronze Supporter
- Jul 20, 2022
- 1,050
- Pool Size
- 13500
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Turbo Cell (T-CELL-5)
Many years ago it was advised to use Polyquat 60 but that has gone out of favor ... so the answer is no I just close the pool as I mentioned. Just as a FYI, if you close the pool and it gets/stays cool you may open to crystal clear water the following year. I typically close the pool the weekend after Labor Day as the water is too cold and open the pool a couple of weekends before Memorial Day. When I opened the pool last year I still had about 1.5 PPM free chlorine. This year I opened late and my pool cover had a large tear in it and I opened to a cloudy (not green yet) mess. If you are closing early and it stays warm for a while you may open to a problem but it's easily cleared up the TFP way. A suggestion given for this is if you need to cover your pool while it's still warm out is don't take the filter off and use the filter and add chlorine as needed. I've never done this but it sounds reasonable.