How To Prepare a Pool for Winter
Are you preparing your home for the winter?
Your pool is no exception and needs to be winterised. Neglecting your pool can result in excessive algae growth. It can also ruin your chlorine system and destroy your lovely pool.
Winterise your pool ahead of time before the temperatures start to drop.
Looking for the best way to prepare your pool for the winter? This article covers what you need to know about preparing your pool for cold weather. Read on to learn more.
Pool Winterisation: What It Is and Why You Need It
The best way of preparing your pool for the cold is by winterisation. Winterising is the process of chlorine reduction and filtration during the winter season.
Winterising your pool allows you to consume less energy. This leads to lower electricity bills. You can also ensure that your luxury swimming pool is set up and ready to use once the weather starts warming up.
Winterising pools aid in reducing the chances of algae growth in your pool during winter. Failing to winterise your pool will cause massive destruction to your pool’s equipment and surface. This means you won’t be able to enjoy your money’s worth as this ruin will reduce the materials’ life expectancies.
Preparing Your Pool for Winter: How to Do It
It's best to ensure that your pool’s winterisation is a success. Because the process is all on the details, it’s crucial to follow these procedures. That way, you'll be able to prevent the cold from damaging your pool during the winter season.
1. Clean Your Swimming Pool
The process of winterising a pool begins with a thorough clean-up of your home swimming pool. This clean-up is an important part of winterisation.
To start, begin skimming the pool water using a pool skimmer. Doing this ensures that you have taken out dirt and debris such as twigs and dried leaves. After that, take your pool brush and start brushing and scrubbing each wall and floor of your pool.
The whole scouring will kick off any algae spores and debris which have been settling down. If your pool waters start looking murky, start scrubbing the area with an algae brush. This will help take out the algae before it roots itself on the walls or floor.
Vacuum all the surfaces of the pool, especially the areas with little to no circulation. These areas are the prime spots for algae to grow.
2. Start Winterising Your Pool
Once you’ve had your pool cleaned, you can now proceed to winterise your pool. The first thing you must do is to test the levels of your pool water. Ensure that it has the right pH balance, alkalinity, and other mineral levels.
Balancing these things will protect your pool from any corrosion and scale build-up.
Once you've settled this, you may put in winter chemicals to prevent algae breakout. To begin with, pour in an algaecide. The amount you’ll need to put in will depend on your pool cover.
The next chemical to add is pool enzymes. Although it’s not mandatory, pool enzymes are great in targeting pool intruders like spores and algae. A Winter Pill is best as it dissolves in the water whilst sanitising and clarifying it during the winter.
Make use of a metal sequestrant as well if you use well water in filling up your pool. Water from the wells has a high chance of having metal traces. Without a metal sequestrant, the metal traces may stick to the pool edges and rust.
One last chemical to add is a pool antifreeze. This is essential for in-ground pools. Pool antifreeze will prevent pipes from bursting and freezing.
3. Shock Your Pool and Start Lowering the Water Levels
Before your pool takes a break in winter, you should shock it for the last time. Shocking it means adding chlorine tablets which will kill any bacteria left in the water. Allow your pool pump to run throughout the night, so the chlorine circulates well.
Once you’ve shocked your pool, begin lowering your pool’s water level. Draining your pool a bit prevents an overflow once the water begins to freeze. However, if you live in someplace warmer, you can skip this step.
4. Clean the Pool Filters
For the duration of this process, your pool filters get filled with all kinds of debris. Remove and clean your pool filters so that it’s one less thing to clean once spring arrives.
Another thing you’ll need to do is to blow out your pipelines. Doing this is tricky as one mistake can get your pipes to burst as soon as it begins to grow cold. It’s recommendable to hire pool professional service for this draining.
However, if you decide to do it, use an air blower and attach it to your pool’s main drain.
5. Close Your Pool
For pool owners who have saltwater pools, closing your pool is a must. Salt in the water will make accessories rusty. To avoid this, take out and dry the pool’s ladder, rails, and other toys before storing them in someplace safe.
To finish preparing your pool for winter, cover it, including the pool pump. There are various pool covers available. Depending on what you have, you may need to do a regular debris clean-up during winter.
A Guide in Preparing the Pool for the Cold With Winterisation
Winterising pools will take up time as the process calls for precision and accuracy. Shocking and draining your pool a little is only the first step to pool winterisation.
Whilst spring clean-ups are great, cleaning your filters beforehand isn’t a bad idea. That way, once you’ve got your pool covered in the winter, it’ll all be ready once spring and summer arrive. Request a call back from us for your pool construction and installation needs now.
