During the cold winter months pool water tends to stay clear with very little help. Generally algae does not appear and I hardly ever see a pool turn green. Any algae growth that does occur is extremely slow.
Of course winterizing is ideal, but many of our pools are not winterized. To these we add an occasional dose of chlorine and run the pump at least once a week. Vacuuming requirements are negligible – once every 3 or 4 weeks is plenty under normal circumstances.
Winterized pools? We cover them and forget them until April or May, which is so much easier.
At the end of the day it is the pool owner who makes the decision and either way we are happy; our pools are always clear and blue.
Keeping your above ground pool covered in winter time is a must, i think. At least when living in areas with cold or bad weather conditions in wintertime. Don’t forget to keep your cover free from raining water though… A good cover pump or draining it yourself once in a while can do the trick!
Mero Pools is an Atlanta Georgia based swimming pool company. We emphasise to all of our clients the importance of winterizing their pools. As i’m writing this we are at 6 degrees. I imagine we will be getting a lot of freeze damage calls. Great Article! Thanks for reminding people! http://www.mdpool.com
I live in central Florida and the winter months have been pretty cold lately and have had some freeze warnings in this area. My question is how often do we put chemicals in our pool during the winter months? The only time anyone swims in the pool is a few times in the summer months, usually on the weekends, but not in the winter.
Do we cut the chemicals in half during the winter months, or do we keep it the same? We usually put in 4 tablets of chlorine if regular size, 2 if large. and 1 shock when there is a lot of activity during the summer months. In the winter months however, no one uses the pool, so we’ve been adding 1 shock a week a 2 tablets of chlorine each week. I believe this is too much and we are wasting our money. I guess the reason we’ve been adding this much, is so we can ease into the summer months with not a lot of maintenance.
Should we cut back on the amount of chemicals since nobody is using the pool in the winter?
Also I might add, this is an in ground pool and it is screened in.
Any information would be much appreciated.
Thank you!
The article is very good! In winter i would flud out the water. So you can save many time for cleaning.
Depending on the lifestyle of the pool owner would depend on what I would recommend for pool care, if they are home all the time then non winterizing is the way to go as it is cheaper but sometimes its not an option and winterizing the pool is the recommended course of action. In the end of the day what ever keeps the client happy is what you should do.
Greetings! This is my first visit to your blog!
We are a group of volunteers and starting a new project in a community
in the same niche. Your blog provided us useful information to work on.
You have done a outstanding job!
In Florida we don’t have the luxory of winterizing a pool. We have to maintain our pools year around, just as we do all summer. But then again, we can swim in our pools for most of the year. So, I guess you win some, you lose some.
We live in Jacksonville Florida, gets cold in the winter but don’t want to maintain the pool all winter but don’t want to have a “mess” in the spring. Any suggestions ??
In ground pool, 1600 gal.
Great reference on what to do to easily maintain a clean, clear pool.
We are moving into a house with an inground pool and winter is approaching with sub-freezing and snow days for about three months. Does a proper solar heater work adequately for comfortable swimming?
TUCSON AZ do I need to drain my 16ft x 4ft in the winter new at this
I came home recently and found my pool pump running although my pool have been winterized. Is there any harm to the pool pump if it had been running after the pool system had been winterized? Thank you
The contractors could run into shale or stone or even sandy soil or clay can lead to potential cost overruns. There could be rocks, roots and even water that weren’t able to be seen during pre-construction inspections.
Informative and attractive lens on Intex pool vacuums. Nice work.
About to start uncovering pools.
Great articles, keep up the good work!
I have an in-ground pool and at least 3 months of freezing weather. I tried a mesh leaf cover for two years with out a regular pool cover. It keeps the leaves out but smaller particles get through and most important the leaves get wet and begin and the tannic acid starts to leech into the pool, sort of like have a few hundred tea bags. Bottom line, the pool was a nice dark brown and it took a lot of filter cycles to get it clear and getting the smaller particles from the bottom was a real pain. So now I cover it and use the leaf nets on top of the cover and it’s a breeze to pump out any water on top of the cover (I put the pump under the leaf net) the leaves go with the net. The water? perfectly clear like the day I covered it. our pool was built by sac pool pros
Here in the bay area of California with the mild winters we service pools year-round. Here is some helpfull adivice: Keep a Routine/Program
Find something that works for you and stick to it every week. You should always perform Free Chlorine, Total Chlorine, pH and Acid Demand tests every single week without exception. It is best if you approach sanitizing your pool as a three step process, even if there is some degree of overlap between the steps. Ensure you have some sort of slow, regulated introduction of sanitizer into the pool – a common method is to use 3” chlorine tablets in a floating dispenser or an in-line feeder (salt chlorine generators satisfy this step as well). Have a separate oxidizing agent that can be used to rapidly dissipate undesirable compounds in the water – granular chlorine shock or liquid sodium hypochlorite (bleach) work well for this. Third, an algae preventative product can save you a lot of grief (and money).
The key is that you find a process that you are comfortable with, addresses the fundamentals of pool care and can be repeated on a weekly basis without too much hassle swimming pool contractor folsom california
That are some great tips to take care for your pool in winter.