How to Get Your Pool Ready for Winter
Temperatures are quickly falling, and many parts of Texas are already on Freeze Watch. Are you taking proper care of your pool?
Protecting your pool during the off-season prevents your pool from freezing, keeps it clean from debris, and makes for a much easier transition into spring and the swimming season.
It's a sad thing to winterize your pool, but it is even sadder when you have to make costly repairs in the spring due to broken pumps, pipes, and filters.
If you don't want to buy all the materials and do all the work yourself, the trained pool service technicians at Texan Blue can do the job for you.
But if you are the DIY type, follow these steps to ensure that you are properly protecting your pool during the cold weather:
Anyone north of San Antonio should winterize their pool. The water, even though it is circulating, can freeze and all of your plastic components in your pool will break and crack (which is not covered by warranty). To avoid these costly repairs, start winterizing your pool now.
Materials:
Rubber Plugs for the Skimmers, Winterizing Chemicals, and Chemistry Test Kit.
1. Check Levels and Balance the Water - About a week before you cover your pool, check the levels of your alkalinity, calcium hardness, and pH and make sure they are at the correct levels.
Your Texan Blue Pool Service technician can test your water and correctly balance your water if you want to skip this step.
Make sure your pool is balanced:
Adjust the pH to a level between 7.2 and 7.8
Adjust the alkalinity to 80 to 120 ppm (parts per million).
Adjust the calcium hardness to 170 to 230 ppm.
If your pool's levels are already in check, move on to step 2.
2. Check Water Level - Make sure that water level is several inches below your skimmer (or tile line).
3. Shock Pool with Chlorine - Bring the chlorine level up to 10-12ppm and then let it return to its normal chlorine level of about 1.5-3.5ppm before moving on to the next step.
4. Balance the Water - Add the winterizing chemicals to the pool. You can buy pool winterizing packages that usually have shock, algaecide, and other winterizing chemicals. Follow the directions on the winterizing mix package.
5. Drain Water from Pumps, Pipes, Filters, and More - You want these things totally drained out so that there is no chance of these parts getting frozen over winter.
Go down to your filter and back-wash it thoroughly. You want to get all the dirt and debris out of there so that when you open it next season, everything is clean and in running order. You can use Filter Cleaner and a water hose to rinse your filter out.
Blow out all of your pipes, your return jets, skimmers, and your heater. You can do this with a shop-vac or an air compressor.
Take out any drain plugs you have in the pump or filter. Make sure there is no water in the chlorinator, the pump, any valve, multiport, and the filter.
You may want to add Antifreeze to your drain pool lines.
5. Remove Pool Equipment and Clean - Before you attach the cover, you'll want to make sure that your pool is free of any equipment and is completely clean.
Remove, clean, and store any diving boards, pool toys, step ladders, and other deck equipment. Store in garage with your pump and filter. You sand filter, however, can be left outside.
Clean the wall and floor of the pool.
Double-check to make sure there is nothing that is obstructing the way for the pool cover.
CONGRATULATIONS! Well, that's it. Your pool is winterized and you can put your worst fears behind you. Your pool won't freeze and it will already be clean and ready to use in the spring.
If you had any trouble, during any of these steps, call the professional pool service technicians at Texan Blue Pool Services. We want to make sure that your investment is properly maintained and protected. For your pool maintenance and repairs, call Texan Blue Pool Service today!
100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
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