[MediocreButArrogant]

Our house is unoccupied 6-9 months of the year, and the pool is covered whenever we aren't there. When it's covered it requires almost no maintenance, as long as the cover stays in place. The chlorine residual does sometimes drop to zero, but with no sunlight hitting the water, no algae grows, except in the strainer basket of the pool pump, since it has a clear cover. If I just put something opaque over it, I probably wouldn't even get algae in the strainer basket.

Regarding pucks, I wouldn't say never use them, just stop using them once your CYA is at a sufficient level. If you ever have zero CYA in your pool (after changing all of the water for example), you can bring the level up with stabilizer until it's close, then use pucks until it gets in that range where you want it. Last time I changed the water in my pool I dumped in a gallon of the pre-dissolved stabilizer, then used pucks for a few months until my CYA was around 70ppm (50-80ppm ideal for high-UV region, per troublefreepool.com).

[OmegaSupreme]

best to go over to troublefreepool forums and do some reading and post some questions

[equid0x]

You don t need to close a pool here in the winter. It doesn't get cold enough. Just maintain a clorine residual and maintain the ph. Change the timer to run between 5 and 7am... Coldest part of the night or use a freeze switch. With 2." pipes they will take hours to freeze.

I drained the above ground plumbing and pump and filter last year and left it off all winter. Everything survived, but I did end up with some scaling on parts of the pool. It appears the acid did not mix with the water and settled into the low points of the pool (where the was subsequently no scaling).

Below 60 degrees I have left the pool without chlorine for weeks with no issues.... Too cold to grow algae. Just need to shock it in the spring.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by Punxsyboy

On the nights it's forecast to get close to freezing, be sure to run your pump. I just change the timer on my pump during the winter to run from midnight to 7 am.

I do the same thing.

[qingguy]

Originally Posted by LuisSuarez

Never use pucks they raise your cya

In my pool 1 trichlor puck will raise my CYA 1.2. No issues for me floating them during the winter and by start of summer I'm usually at my desired swim season level. If it gets too high I simply pull out the puck and use bleach to maintain my chlorine level.

I test my CYA (home test, not pools store garbage test) every other week to monitor.

[irisheyzs]

Ok I'm still learning...what is CYA. I'm sure it's not the CYA I know

[LuisSuarez]

Cyuranic Acid or stabilizer it makes your chlorine last longer. The problem is if your cya goes too high the chlorine becomes less effective. Once your cya is too high the only way to get it down is to dump a lot of water and refill.

[irisheyzs]

Leslie's did tell us we should empty the pool and refill. They said the water is old? Maybe that's why.

[beachhead]

Originally Posted by irisheyzs

Leslie's did tell us we should empty the pool and refill. They said the water is old? Maybe that's why.

Be very very careful trusting anything you are told from Leslies! Sometimes you get really good advice, and often you get really bad advice, designed to increase the ringing of their cash register.

It is possible you need to exchange your water, but if you do, I'd personally wait until the spring, because it'll just immediately start building up the things that force you into that position (calcium seems to be the worst out here, but cya from pucks can be a factor, as can salt if you have a salt water pool)

It would be a wise investment in your time to spend some time reading the forums and "pool school" on troublefreepool.com (as others have already mentioned) They have a very helpful community, have outstanding information, and you can even buy the tools to become your own pool chemistry expert (or at least know why things went wrong) After a little bit of reading, you may even find you rarely, if ever, visit leslies again..

[LVAllen]

Originally Posted by irisheyzs

Leslie's did tell us we should empty the pool and refill. They said the water is old? Maybe that's why.

Water doesn't get old. Some chemicals remain in the water, some break down. Cyanuric acid (stabilizer) is one that accumulates. CYA is part of the chlorine pucks. Stabilizer protects the chlorine from reacting from the sunlight and oxidizing away, but it also reduces the effectiveness of the chlorine. So, if you've been using pucks for a long time, the CYA levels have likely built up. Partial drain/refill is a possible action. The point is that Leslie's doesn't know what's going on, and isn't really a good source of advice. Their job is to sell you chemicals.

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