Why Would You Close A Pool?
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Why on earth would anyone want to close their swimming pool? This is actually such a common question from pool owners who live in warm climate areas where you can operate your swimming pool 365 days per year. Even some areas where it gets too cool to swim still choose to leave the pool open, filtered and chemically managed for for the entire winter season. So why would anyone choose to close and winterize the pool completely? The short answer is that nobody wants to close their pool. More that they are forced to close it in order to make the area safe (safer) for the winter season, as well as protecting the pool, buried plumbing system and filtration equipment from damage in the winter.
Even though in cold weather bacteria and algae hardly grow at all you still need to protect against freeze damage in pools. If given the option of leaving the pool open or closing and winterizing I would always lean towards closing and winterizing. If you can not swim then the only problem is that a closed and winterized pool is not as attractive to look at in your yard as a beautiful and clean, albeit cold, swimming pool. You can sometimes get events like which Texas experienced in 2021 where uncommonly cold weather combined with power outages. This was a disaster since the way you stop pools from freezing up (the pipes) in the winter is by keeping the water flowing. Moving water does not freeze as easily. However, if you lose power for days on end then you can end up with serious damage to your pool, the pipes and the filtration equipment. Which is exactly what happened in Texas in 2021. Record numbers of pools were damaged and the materials to repair these pools drained supply shelves of equipment and valves for the entire country.
Closing a pool for safety - First and foremost you close a pool in the winter for safety. When you have ice and falling snow the pool will become tempting to walk on for animals and children who do not know any better. This creates a trap where a person or animal could fall in. When you close and winterize your pool with a safety cover, which all pools should have in my opinion, then this prevents the person (or animal) on the pool from falling through into the deeper water below. It is not a perfect system and it does not create a risk free area, but it does substantially help to secure your swimming pool area during the winter season.
Closing a pool to protect from freeze damage - Even though the pipes for your swimming pool should be buried fairly deep they can still sustain damage from freezing weather. Most especially the point at which pipes connect to the underside of your skimmer, as well as the point where the return pipes connect to the wall. The movement of the earth surrounding your pool may be different than the movement (or lack of movement) of the pool itself. If the pipes have to move with the ground and the pool does not move then this will sheer the pipes as the connect to the pool. Additionally, any water that is left within the plumbing system is likely to freeze, and in doing so will expand outwards and if trapped, like within a pipe or fitting, will easily crack and break even the strongest pipe and fittings. Evacuating the plumbing of water, emptying and protecting the skimmer with antifreeze and a gizzmo, as well as draining and winterizing the equipment will all prevent water from expanding and cracking the equipment. When properly drained and winterized almost all pool equipment can survive outside for a freezing winter season without any problems or freeze damage.
Closing a pool to save work / money - If it is too cold to swim for months on end then you might want to close and winterize your pool just to save on the workload and expense of maintaining the water. Cold water does not require a lot of maintenance and chemical adjustments, but they do need some, and this means you have to do it or pay someone else to do it. Alternatively you could heat your pool through the colder weather enough to swim, or even just enough to keep it from freezing, but this means the pool needs to be skimmed, brushed, chemically balanced etc. and all without even being able to swim. Realistically heating an outdoor pool in a cool climate area in the winter is not practical for most people. This would be extremely expensive to do, even using n automatic cover or solar cover on the pool at night.
It is not all that hard to close and winterize a pool. I wrote this guide which explains how a professional crew will close a pool in 1 hour and not by cutting corners either. Simply by knowing what to do and the order to do it in. If you are interested in knowing more about the step by step details of closing and winterizing a swimming pool I do have a series where I talk in detail about each of the steps involved in the winterizing process. You can find this vide series here: how to winterize a pool - step by step.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool specialist from Ontario Canada and one of the most trusted voices in the swimming pool industry. With over 20,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the Pleatco Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print. Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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