Winterizing your pool correctly is critical to protecting your pool equipment and the structure of your pool over the cold, winter months. We get a lot of questions about the proper way to close a pool and winterizing a pool so that it can endure the cold New England winter.
Why Leave Water in the Pool Over the Winter?
Many people are curious about why most of their pool water is left in the pool over the winter. It may seem counterintuitive to
leave any water in your pool over the winter, given that it will inevitably freeze to some degree. Doesn’t this put your pool’s vinyl or plaster surface at risk of being damaged by ice? Damage over the winter from standing ice occurs very rarely and typically only happens with a pool is not properly closed.
There would be far more destruction to your pool if you were to remove all the water before closing for the winter. This is because the massive amount of weight that the water in your pool exerts on the surface is literally holding your pool in place. Consider an average inground swimming pool, which has about 25,000 gallons of water in it. For a pool like this, the total weight of the water is over 200,000 pounds. That’s about 100 tons that, if it were removed for a long period of time, would no longer be exerting its force on the pool and would cause a great amount of structural damage since the pool would have trouble holding back the force of the earth around it.
Proper Closing Procedures
When you have your pool closed properly, all that water left in your pool over the winter is perfectly swimmable in the spring after it’s balanced with chemicals. When winterizing pool water, you will want to keep water out of your pool’s plumbing lines and skimmer systems. For inground pools, this involves blowing out the lines with air and adding antifreeze, along with sealing up your skimmer system.
Check out these Last Minute Tips for Winterizing Your Pool, and see why it is important to balance your water chemistry before closing, and how to add the proper winterizing algaecide and shock.
Inspect Your Winter Cover
Always inspect your winter pool cover before closing day! If rodents got into it over the winter, you could be in a bind and a big rush to replace it. Learn How to Keep Rodents Out of Pool Equipment During the Winter, and consider purchasing a new safety cover if yours has any tears or holes.
Our expert service technicians at The Swimming Pool Store take pride in every pool they close so that the cold New England winter doesn’t wreak havoc on them, and so that you can enjoy your pool quickly after opening in the spring. Learn more about closing your pool correctly and how to schedule a professional pool closing for a worry-free opening in the spring.
Learn more: How to Close Pools for Winter: Complete Guide, Tips, and Step-by-Step Instructions
The Swimming Pool Store is still closing pools, but our schedules fill up quickly. Please inspect your winter pool cover and give us a call at (860) 673-6118 to schedule your pool closing.