A lot of people think that once they close their Swimming pool and put it to bed that’s is good until spring. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Obviously, it starts with the closing. An improper closing could result in thousand of dollars in repairs cause by freeze damage. It is best to have a pool professional close your pool, but that is a subject for another time.
If you have a solid cover on your pool, when snow and rain collects on it, whether the cover is anchored, automatic or held in place by water bags, the weight of the snow or rain will displace water in your swimming pool, this is completely normal. If this happens it is imperative that you remove the water from your cover as soon as possible and replace the water in your pool. If you don’t, your cover may end up either destroyed or in your pool. In addition, if the water is not replace, if enough hydrostatic pressure were to build up your pool or liner could float.
We do not drain or recommend draining any water out of pools at closing, except for concrete pools to protect the tile line. If the water level were to get to low and ice forms, when that ice shifts it could pull out the winter plugs protecting your plumbing, exposing your plumbing to freeze damage.
water chemistry is also important even over the winter. If you close your pool with water temperatures above 60 degrees or open it after the temperatures are above 60 degrees, even a properly closed pool will be highly susceptible to algae and bacteria growth. So it is important, even during the winter to maintain a proper sanitizer level. In addition, the water chemistry in concrete pools with a plaster finish, can also change dramatically over the winter, especially on newly plastered pools. the PH in all plaster pools will drift up over time. If you have a plaster pool you know this because you constantly have to bring down the PH while the pool is in use. This doesn’t change in winter. I’ve seen many concrete pools that were closed in perfect shape, but when they were opened the finish felt like sand paper because the high PH caused scaling to occur. This can be very time consuming and expensive to correct. This doesn’t have to occur. Checking and adjusting your water chemistry 2 or 3 times during the winter can prevent this. Remember, your system does not have to be running to maintain proper water chemistry. Also remember our store is open through out the year and is available for free water testing.
