5 Tips for Closing a Pool for the Winter

Night temperatures keep getting lower and unless you enjoy swimming in ice-cold water, your pool won’t be used until next spring. It is always a sad day when you realize the summer is over, but you need to get yourself together and deal with the last reminder of warm summer days – your swimming pool.

Woodfield pool experts are here today to give you tips on winterizing your pool.

Winterizing Your Pool

1. Clean. Remove any debris, pool toys and unused chemicals, brush off any dirt and vacuum if necessary. Also remove ladders, skimmer baskets and any other detachable parts. Try to make pool as clean as possible.

2. Balance the water chemistry. Make sure the water’s pH, hardness and other chemical components are well-balanced. Purchase and apply winterizing kit. It is important to keep the water balanced over the winter to avoid unwanted deposits and scale buildup.

Tip: make sure you dissolve all the chemicals added to the water. If you throw a tablet in the pool without dissolving, it will sit in one spot for a long time and can damage the liner.

3. Unless you are using a special skimmer cover, such as Aquador, lower water level below the skimmers. This will prevent water from entering filtration system and damaging it in case the temperatures drop below freezing.

4. Drain water from all pool equipment: pumps, filters, heaters – everything you have hooked up to your pool. Remove plugs where applicable and use a shop vacuum to blow out all the remaining water from the pipes, tubes and other pluming components. The water you fail to remove has a potential to freeze, expand and damage your equipment.

5. Cover the pool. If you don’t already have a pool cover, purchase one and secure it over the pool. Make sure there are no gaps where dirt and leaves can get in.

Preparing your pool for winter gives you a great opportunity to thoroughly examine it. If you notice any cracks or tears in your pool liner, get in touch with your Maryland pool repair expert for the consultation. He will recommend you either to fix it up now or wait till spring. Waiting is often better, because some other damage may occur over the winter.