[texas2nv]

Hello peps! Just moved here and im very new to this city. I have a question for you pool owners. My house came with a pool(inground)how bad is the winters here, do i have to winterize the pool(drain water)and put a pool cover??

Ive called a few pool companies today and i have mixed views.

There telling me not to worry about winter and run the pump from midnight to 6am in the morning. is this true??? no covers/no water drainage?

as is getting closer to winter im feeling very worried .

please input.....Thanks

[AA702]

You do not have to winterize your pool here in Las Vegas. You still have to keep your water balanced and run your pump at night (or coldest part of the night) to prevent any pipes from freezing on those nights when it drops below freezing (usually dec-jan). You can put a cover on it, but it might just keep it dirty since it can get very windy at times. Draining a concrete pool can damage it because you risk cracking and flaking the plaster. If you have any more questions, you can DM me and I will answer any more questions in detail.

[MediocreButArrogant]

The most ice you will get in your pool is about 1/16th of an inch thick, a few days out of the year, so no, you don't need to close your pool for the winter. I've checked the hourly forecast on weather.com on some of the coldest days, and IIRC, the coldest temps are around 6AM, so just running your pump for a few hours centered around the coldest point of the day should be sufficient to prevent damage from freezing. Since I have a variable speed pump it costs very little to run, but back when I had a single 2hp pump, I'd run from 4AM to 8AM in winter.

I'd say more people leave their pool open all winter than close it. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. I did jump in a week ago because I've had a light fixture dangling by its cord for nearly two months that needed to be screwed into the fixture. Even though air temps were near 90F, that water was COLD. OTOH, I can still hear my neighbor from Boston doing cannonballs into his pool to entertain his baby daughter.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by texas2nv

Hello peps! Just moved here and im very new to this city. I have a question for you pool owners. My house came with a pool(inground)how bad is the winters here, do i have to winterize the pool(drain water)and put a pool cover??

Ive called a few pool companies today and i have mixed views.

There telling me not to worry about winter and run the pump from midnight to 6am in the morning. is this true??? no covers/no water drainage?

as is getting closer to winter im feeling very worried .

please input.....Thanks

702 will be along in a bit with the most authoritative view. I the interim I have run pools of my own for almost 30 years including 12 here.

YOu can run your pump a few hours a day and nothing bad will happen. You will still need to clean it out periodically and keep some rational chemical balance but that gets pretty easy as the water gets cold. Worst that happens as an occasional thin crust of ice.

You can cover it and ignore it pretty much. If we get a big rain you might need to suck off the cover. But that is pretty rare. Mostly pull the cover off and any water goes into the pool where the filter takes care of it.

The easiest way is hire AA702 who will take care of it for you all winter for a mere pittance...and then you don't have to worry at all.

They don't freeze. They don't expand and damage the concrete. They do get dirty but the ugly stuff does not grow well when it is cold.

So relax, hire AA702 and fuggetaboutit.

Darn AA702 slipped in before me. Well read this like he did not because I ain't gonna rewrite it. And if it conflicts he is right.

[Buzz123]

You need to worry more about your reverse flow (anti siphon) valve on your sprinkler system freezing than your pool. Make sure you wrap it good then maybe put a box over it, or they sell fitted covers at Star Nursery but they don't always fit.

I wouldn't cover the pool. It's a pain in the a$$. Pool covers turn into swamps with the first rain, and breed mosquitoes, or they simply blow off the pool and act like a sail. Try to hold it down with cement blocks and they'll end up in the pool cracking your plaster. Take it from one who knows.

Anyway they are a mess and not worth the trouble. Be sure the filter runs at night so the pipes don't freeze. Only one time in the last 45 years did it ever freeze during the day and pools froze solid enough to walk on...at least my dog walked on it...that was in 1991. Had to do some very expensive repairs to the filter system too. But that is too rare to think about.

OC is right, hire a pool service, especially during the winter. Cleaning a pool in January, or testing the water for chemicals, etc., is not very pleasant.

[MomMom]

We don't bother covering our pool, never have and have never had a problem.

[yellowsnow]

What has to be done to keep the solar heat on the roof from freezing? I turned it off but does that actually drain it too?

[olecapt]

It should...but don't count on it. Either figure it out or get AA702 to make a consult. You do not want a full roof array in cold weather.

[yellowsnow]

Originally Posted by olecapt

It should...but don't count on it. Either figure it out or get AA702 to make a consult. You do not want a full roof array in cold weather.

You're right. In a couple days after the wind dies down I'll go up on the roof and see. Should be easy to tell. If it's heavy, it's full.

DUH. Sometimes doing the easy thing just escapes me. Now I have to figure out how to turn off the solar hot water too.

[AA702]

Usually there is a union at the bottom of the pipe that goes to the roof. You can take that union appart and it will drain the rest of the water from your roof. If there is no union, there should be a check valve and if you take the cover off, that should also drain it.