winter and putting the pool to bed

[Viv]

Hi  can someone help me what if anything should i do to my small in ground pool for the winter i know it says to half empty it but is there anything eles i should do

[Baz]

Viv. yes lower the level of Pool but the most important part of winterisation is make sure if the pool freezes that you have taken the necessary precautions to prevent possibly very expensive damage.

You should disconnect the plastic tubing to the pump, filter and heating system to ensure water that could freeze has been removed (reconnect when opening in the Spring). Then add the correct amount of winterising chemical to the pool (easily available in large supermarkets or pool shops). Finally partially fill a couple of say old chemical containers with sand or stones so they still float in the pool as this will prevent damage to the pool if it freezes. Then place the cover over the pool. One final tip is that you should still regularly check the water and add chemicals as necessary even in the winter.

I hope this helps.

Baz

[Mpprh]

Hi

The above advice covers areas that are likely to freeze.

Here people just add hivernage (or keep adding galettes during winter) cover the pool and protect the filter. Either with blankets or a small heater with antigel setting in the pool house.

I leave the filtration on auto for 1 hr at 04.00 in the morning (coldest time ?) so on the rare occasions we have temps below freezing, the ice cannot form. At this rate a galette lasts about 1 month.

Some keep the pool open through the winter. Some claim to use them !

Peter

[Barkham]

I've never understood the logic of lowering the pool level, it only fills up again when it rains.  All I have ever done is put three rows of floats (like the man said, 5 litre plastic bottles with some stones in the bottom) PLUS empty plastic bottles in the skimmer. I put a heavy cover over it, drain the pump and the filter and forget it till the spring. I've never bothered to use the expensive chemicals the pool agents try to sell me. In spring it looks horrible, but cleans up within a day or so. After eleven seasons, I'm convinced that this is the way to go.

[Jackie]

We were given the option of reducing the water level, removing the pump etc etc or leaving the thing as it was and running the pump at times when freezing was likely. The first year we tried this the surface froze to a depth of about 1 cm despite having floating half filled containers in the pool.

The second year we left the summer cover on and it did not freeze at all. Still ran the pump at night though. I must add that the pool is a saline pool with electrical production of chlorine when the pump runs. A non-saline pool may not like being covered all the time. We had no green goo in the spring and cleaned it out every week during the winter instead of every other day as in the summer.

PH needed adjusting when spring came, must be the effect of all that rain water, and added six 25Kg bags of salt in the spring to make up for that lost when excess water was pumped out after rain in the winter, don't want to let the level get so high that it gets behind the liner. The down side is that running the pump at night costs, in our case about 18 pence a night at the cheap rate not a fortune and no extra chemicals like chlorine tablets needed.

Saline conversion kits are pretty simple, though not cheap, just a meaty low voltage d.c. (15A at 9V ) unsmoothed power supply and an electrolytic cell that goes on the output of the pump. It would pay to check that the pump and pipe work would not be affected by the slightly salty water, about the strength of human tears.

Our experience for what it is worth.........John in Dept 79  

[Fleur]

[quote]We were given the option of reducing the water level, removing the pump etc etc or leaving the thing as it was and running the pump at times when freezing was likely. The first year we tried this the ...[/quote]

"... about the strength of human tears"

For me, post of the month

 

[Jackie]

Was this a reference to, and I quote:

... "I shall live in human tears and laughter, in human sorrow and fear, in human goodness
and wickedness, in justice and injustice, in weakness and strength..."

otherwise just don't get your banter!  ....John

[Nick Trollope]

[quote]Was this a reference to, and I quote: ... "I shall live in human tears and laughter, in human sorrow and fear, in human goodness and wickedness, in justice and injustice, in weakness and strength......[/quote]

You googled this, didn't you? Or are you Finnish?

[Nick Trollope]

Also.....

What is in the winterisation chemicals? Can I just continue to keep the Chlorine, PH etc levels correct?

[Jackie]

Great piece of detective work Nick, I am not of that race and of course this was a quote from Sinuhe, the Egyptian, who lived alone all the days of his life poor chap!

 

You might like to look at  http://www.appools.co.uk/water-winterising.html  which gives information on closing down pools. I don’t bother to lower the water level as ours is not tiled and should not crack if there is a freeze. In any case I run the pump at night and on those days where the temperature takes the odd rare plunge below zero. Last year the water temperature did not drop below 5 degrees Celsius despite air temperatures being lower at night. I don’t use algaecide, which might be a good idea in a non-saline pool, as the spores don’t seem to like salt water even though it is quite weak, but let us not go that route again!……..Cheers……….John in Dept 79