Are you considering not covering pool for winter? At the end of every summer, you always face the maintenance question – what will you do to keep the pool intact this winter? Not covering your pool during winter could be a mistake if not cared for properly. I know you have heard your share of pool disasters during winter, from structural damages and broken pipes to algae growing under the cover. But how do you settle for what’s best for your pool? Maintaining and closing your pool during winter offers advantages and disadvantages.
Winterizing
As part of caring for your pool during winter, winterizing is a crucial step. Winterizing will not only protect your property from damage but will also care for it during winter thus making it easier to reopen when spring comes. Here are the crucial steps needed to winterize your pool. These steps can be used for under-ground and above-ground pools.
Not Covering Pool for Winter
Step 1: Cleaning
Grab your pools vacuum and any other tools needed to clean the floor and the walls of your pool. The pool should stay clean to avoid staining during warm days. Cleaning also reduces pollutants that can lead to issues like scum accumulating in the pool. Also, remember to get rid of bromine and chlorine tablets if they’re still in your pool.
Step 2: Balance the chemistry of your pool.
This is done by checking your chlorine level, pH level, and alkalinity level. This will prevent scaling and corrosion, which are caused by unbalanced chemistry. Most Winterizing kits will come with all the ingredients needed to get your pool ready for winter. Pools chemistry will vary from one region to another because of the difference in weather conditions.
Step 3: Lowering the Water Level
The water level in your pool should be at least six inches below the first outlet from the bottom. The main reason for just draining some water and not all the water is to make sure that the pool remains with some weight to hold it on the ground thus preventing damage caused by that process in the ground.
Step 4: Remove All Pool Accessories
After reducing the water level in the pool and checking the chemical balances, you can now remove all pool accessories. These accessories must be drained and cleaned to prevent staining and the growth of molds while in storage. After this is done, the rest of the winterizing process can begin.
Step 5: Covering your Swimming Pool
After removing all the accessories, you can proceed to cover your pool. However, you’ll need to fix a particular floater in the middle of the pool, below the winter cover. This floater will control the freezing that will be building up on the cover. This will help to prevent damage to your cover.
As you have seen, taking care of your pool during winter helps to ensure that your pool remains in it clean, perfect and healthy condition. Not covering pool for winter can leave you with a dirty pool, pipes and pumps issues and the ice could break the walls of the pool.