What to Do With Your Pool in the Winter

by Gillian Markson | More from this Blogger

16 Jun 2006 04:06 PM

Most pool owners g through the laborious task of closing their pool for the winter...unless you're lucky enough to live in a climate that allows you to keep your pool open year-round.

Closing your pool in the winter is tough - a dreaded task by many. It involves hauling out heavy pool covers and laying them as smoothly over the top of the pool. It is not a task that anyone can do on their own, unless they have invested thousands of dollars into an automated system. Here is a how-to guide for the basic pool-closing steps.

Draining Your Pool Some pool owners choose to drain their pools for the winter. Draining a pool makes opening it in the summer easy, but more expensive because you will have to pay to put gallons of water back in.

When you drain your pool, you basically remove all of the water. To remove the water, take a look at your pool's pump. There should be a rotating knob at the top of the pump that can be set either to "drain" or "backwash." Set this knob to either of those options.

Next, your pool will expel the water to some location. Somewhere on your property, there is an open pipe out of which the water will flow into your yard. It is a good idea to know where this pipe is so that you can monitor the draining process. This area of your yard will become flooded with pool water, but it is important that it not become over-flooded to the point where it creates a small pond. Small ponds may or may not be able to evaporate. Therefore, you may want to consider draining your pool over the course of several days.

Once your pool is drained, you will want to cover it with the pool cover so that winter leaves and debris do not get into the area and stain the sides of your pool.

Not-Draining Your Pool If you choose to leave the water in your pool over the winter, you are in the majority. Most people find that the time, expense and nuisance of draining the pool is much less than the work that would go into filling it back up from the start.

If you are not draining your pool, your pool closing tasks are simple: make sure your pool is in pristine shape with no debris or leaves in the pool. Then, pull the pool cover tightly over the pool, making sure that there is very little room between the tarp and the ground. This method is not flawless, and it is assured that you will get some wintertime debris, but at least the pool cover will keep most of it out.

In general, most people leave their pool areas vacant during the winter months. Of course, it is an empty pool that helped to give birth to the sport of skateboarding. If you choose, you can use your pool area for other recreational activities. But most of all, you can look forward to the warm weather months when the pool is open again and filled with your friends and family.

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