The 1 Hour Pool Closing
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Did you know that a swimming pool service professional can (with the help of one helper) close and winterize over 12 pools every single day of the closing season? That means in a standard 12 hour day one crew of two people will drive to and close as many as 12 swimming pools for the winter. Before I did this work myself I would have thought that number to be ridiculously high. I mean it is ridiculously high, but I would not have believed you. Even as a pool builder I would occasionally close and winterize a pool for someone, usually as a favor, and I could do three in a casual Saturday. So how the heck would a pool crew of two people manage to do four times as much work? In short, pool closing is a finely tuned machine. There is very little fat in the day of a pool closing crew. No extra time for lunches or even bathroom breaks, no talking with pool owners who have questions and certainly no time for petting cute dogs that wander over to watch you work, which is in and of itself a crime.
When a pool closing crew bursts into your backyard they will do so like Seal Team Six and within 90 seconds of arrival every tool needed to effectively close the pool is already in the backyard, the pump is already running with the discharge hoses stretched out to the road, and now one person is wrestling the pool cover over to the pool area while the other (more experienced) person is over at the pool equipment starting to disassemble the pump, filter, heater and salt system. The speed at which an experienced technician can accomplish this work is astounding to uninitiated people. Full disassembly of the pump, filter, heater draincocks, closing the gas valves, removing the salt cell...all of this is completed in under one minute from arrival at the equipment pad. This is because pool equipment is not all that complicated, and winterizing is a pretty straight forward process with almost all brands, makes and models of pumps, filters and heaters being winterized in the same way.
Winterizing a pool pump - The technician walks up to the pump and turns off the power. There is no backwashing of filters or final running of the pump for the closing crew. All of that needs to be done in advance of the closing crew arriving because once they get there everything will be in pieces within minutes. Take the lid off the pump and remove the strainer basket. Rinse out all of the leaves and debris in the strainer basket at this point. Now remove the two drain plugs on the pump, front and side, and deposit these into the empty pump strainer basket for winter storage. Now the pump is winterized. The plugs are removed and the pump will drain all water out. The winterizing plugs will be either wing nut which you can unscrew by hand, or a 9/16" plastic sized nut, most commonly.
Winterizing a pool filter - All three filter types, sand, cartridge and DE filters need to be drained to avoid breaking when the freezing temperatures arrive. Sand filters are unique in that after backwashing and rinsing, you simply open the bottom drain and then set the filter head to winter. The other two need to be opened to be disassembled and cleaned during the winter season. For this reason cartridge and DE filters require a little more effort and time to winterize than sand filters, but a skilled technician can have the split flange apart in minutes to remove the filter elements / grids. If you have a split flange to open note that they are often brass and a softer metal so definitely use correct fit sockets as opposed to channel locks or even an adjustable wrench. All filters need to have the pressure gauge removed as well as any sight glass if there is one. If there is an air relief valve it should be left in the open position to prevent from trapping water where it can freeze, expand and cause damage.
Winterizing a gas heater - When a skilled technician winterizes a gas heater they will close the external gas supply valve and turn off the power to the heater. Next they will open the front service access and turn off the secondary gas valve, as well as opening the pressure switch if the heater is equipped with one. This is usually a 7/16" wrench along with a 1/2" wrench, though sometimes it is two 7/16" wrenches to open this. After this the draincocks are opened, which are either just like the two from your pump, or are brass sometimes, but they are removed to facilitate blowing through the heater to eliminate all of the water that is trapped inside. When I close and winterize pool heaters when I get to this stage I would usually leave my blower blowing through the heater for a few minutes while I walk away to take care of something else. This helps to atomize all of the residual water and moisture from within the heater where you really do not want to have any over the winter.
Winterizing a salt cell - To winterize a salt water chlorinator you simply power off the unit and unscrew the generator cell. You should clean it over the off season and you should install a "dummy cell" or rubber plugs to prevent water or pests from making a winter home inside of your pool pipes.
People tend to assume the pool equipment is the hard part about winterizing and it really is not. It is definitely expensive if you make a mistake and something ends up broken but if everything goes well it takes only a few minutes and a few tools to fully close and winterize all of your pool equipment. By leaving all of the plugs you remove right in the skimmer basket you can be sure it will all be right there when you go to put it back together in the spring. If you take all this stuff away and store it in a shed, the garage or your basement it will be missing by spring with shocking regularity.
So up until now we have been closing this pool for about 10 minutes in total. The entire equipment pad is now winterized, the pool which has been draining with a large discharge pump this whole time is now just about at the bottom of the returns which is perfect for the rest of the process. The pump is shut down, rolled up and put back in the truck. Now the blower which was used to empty the equipment is set to blow through the skimmer for a few minutes while the two person crew orients the cover correctly on or next to the pool. Once the skimmer is dry the antifreeze and gizzmo are added and the blower is switched to blow through the return pipes now. The crew blows out all returns, and then systematically closes all but one return to evacuate the maximum amount of water from inside the system. Winter plugs are then installed and the cover is stretched over the pool and fixed in place. The pool winterizing and closing is now complete.
Closing details - While the main service tech is winterizing the equipment the helper is locating the pool cover to the side of the pool and preparing for installation. During this time they will also be removing the ladders from the pool as well as adding winterizing chemicals to the water if the pool owner has requested a closing kit. Chlorine is usually also added to the pool at the time of closing to help keep it clean and clear over the long winter season.
Even the biggest and most complicated of pools would only take two or perhaps three hours at most to close and winterize for a skilled crew. The easiest of pools, which is almost always ones with mesh safety covers, can sometimes be fully closed and winterized in as little as 15 minutes. I know for the average pool owner this is really hard to visualize but this is the reality of how the industry operates. There are hundreds of thousands of pools in major cities and every pool pretty much wants to close up at the same time. This requires pool service companies to whittle this process down to a military level procedure where every last event is known and planned for in explicit detail in advance. For the average pool owner just remember that this is not a race for you if you want to close your own pool. You are far better off to take a long time and be very careful since you do not close hundreds or even thousands of pools every year. But if you see a pool closing crew come and close your pool in 30 minutes do not be disappointed thinking there is no way they could do the job properly in that time...you should be happy because the faster crews are the more experienced ones. A pool company taking a long time to close a pool it what concerns me much more!
If you want to learn more about how to close and winterize a pool yourself be sure to check out this 8 part video series on winterizing a pool where you will learn about winterizing each component of the pool in specific detail.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool and spa specialist from Ontario Canada. With over 10,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the 2018 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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