Winterizing (closing) a swimming pool

We do it ourselves. In-ground salt water pool, safety cover, very simple. We were paying a guy $200 on the side to open and same to close when we first bought and had no clue what we were doing (or time to learn), but only did that for one season now DIY. And if you're not already familiar with the Trouble Free Pool forum, you gotta check it out. It's awesome, and they have a very lengthy thread on closing your pool:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/

The TFP forum just saved me many hundreds on fixing my salt chlorine generator. Thanks to TFP, diagnosed and replaced a $3 part on the circuit board where any place I called wanted to replace the whole board for an average of $600!!!

Thanks, QuestForKnowledge. Very much appreciated. Same pool as yours, opening myself but never had time to learn the closing, will definitely read and re-evaluate.

Here are the real quick basics of what we do when closing our pool. I do have a 'checklist' written down so I don't forget anything, but this is just off the top of my head. Just take this as a guide as I don't go into detail and I'm sure I forgot to list one or two things.

1. Clean/vacuum the pool well
2. Drain the water to below the returns
3. Remove salt cell, clean, and store
4. Blow air out of them (I use my shop vac) and cap at the pool end
5. Remove ladder and railings (couple of bolts out with my rachet)
6. Raise safety cover supports from the deck (very fast with my cordless drill)
7. Add winterization chemicals to the pool (add anti-freeze into main drain line from skimmer, some 'pipe noodle' and cap)
8. Prep filter and pump (drain them, remove gauges, etc)
9. Prep heater (drain, etc)
10. Put safety cover on.
11. Crack open a beer and think about something more enjoyable to spend your $300 on!

Note on #1: Before you begin draining, make sure you have a vacuum hose (or similar) that you can insert into the pipe to the pump. This will be needed once the water level drops below the skimmer.
Note on #4: We also stick a bit of 'pipe noodle' into each before we cap, just in case some water gets in
Note on #10: Make sure you have the right tool (or something similar) to slide the cover buckles onto the deck screws. These things should include the tool needed, but I use a skinny metal pipe which works real well.
General Tip: Make sure you organize all the stuff you disassembe well (label it, whatever). You will be glad you did when comes time to reassemble.

The first time you do this, it will go very slowly. Start early in the morning so you don't run out of time. Don't let this discourage you, as you are simply learning everything this time. It may take you a while to locate drain plugs, figure out exactly what to remove, how to use things, etc. The second time around, you'll know all this stuff and it'll go MUCH faster, like half or a third of the time. I imagine after a few years doing this, it'll be very fast.

We usually get a service to open and close the pool (around $300 for each). Yes, it is expensive but we have one of those pool winter cover in which the water accumulates over the winter, and you really need a long hose/pump to remove it (to the street) which would be really hard for us to do without same equipment. Also the cover is a pain in the ass to put on and remove/clean/fold - takes two people about an hour for open/close. So, it is worth it.

QuestForKnowledge wrote: ↑We do it ourselves. In-ground salt water pool, safety cover, very simple. We were paying a guy $200 on the side to open and same to close when we first bought and had no clue what we were doing (or time to learn), but only did that for one season now DIY. And if you're not already familiar with the Trouble Free Pool forum, you gotta check it out. It's awesome, and they have a very lengthy thread on closing your pool:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/

The TFP forum just saved me many hundreds on fixing my salt chlorine generator. Thanks to TFP, diagnosed and replaced a $3 part on the circuit board where any place I called wanted to replace the whole board for an average of $600!!!

We have the same set-up and also do it ourselves - takes about 2 hours in April to open and in November to close. When I'm too busy, I hire somebody but it isn't good value for money.

I don't have a pool but my neighbour has a 16'x32' underground, therefore may I ask a question:


Every year when he closes his pool he partially empties his pool and drains it between our houses. He does this again come summer with the aid of a pump and long hose. I'm finding that the grass dies around the area at the end of the hose more so on my side due to the slope in between the houses and it take about 6-8 weeks for the grass to grow back. Is it possible that the water draining from the hose re pool water is killing the grass since it may contain chlorine? I'm not sure why he doesn't drain it down his driveway since that is also sloped and his drain hose is long enough?

Maymybonneliveforever wrote: ↑I don't have a pool but my neighbour has a 16'x32' underground, therefore may I ask a question:


Every year when he closes his pool he partially empties his pool and drains it between our houses. He does this again come summer with the aid of a pump and long hose. I'm finding that the grass dies around the area at the end of the hose more so on my side due to the slope in between the houses and it take about 6-8 weeks for the grass to grow back. Is it possible that the water draining from the hose re pool water is killing the grass since it may contain chlorine? I'm not sure why he doesn't drain it down his driveway since that is also sloped and his drain hose is long enough?

There is no chlorine in the water come spring. The chlorine has long dissipated.

Maymybonneliveforever wrote: ↑Every year when he closes his pool he partially empties his pool and drains it between our houses.

midget_man wrote: ↑There is no chlorine in the water come spring. The chlorine has long dissipated.

What about when he partially drains it this year, there is chlorine in it now?

Thanks for the reply.

Maymybonneliveforever wrote: ↑What about when he partially drains it this year, there is chlorine in it now?

Thanks for the reply.

There would almost definitely be chlorine in it now but it's usually pretty weak by the time that people close their pool. There would also be salt if it's a salt pool. He may not be draining it down his driveway because of municipal crack-downs on discharging pool water into storm sewers.

Don't you have to shock the pool and pour in other winterizing chemicals such as algaecide before closing? If so, the water at the end of the season should have a slightly higher concentration of chlorine and other chemicals.

ozymandias wrote: ↑We usually get a service to open and close the pool (around $300 for each). Yes, it is expensive but we have one of those pool winter cover in which the water accumulates over the winter, and you really need a long hose/pump to remove it (to the street) which would be really hard for us to do without same equipment. Also the cover is a pain in the ass to put on and remove/clean/fold - takes two people about an hour for open/close. So, it is worth it.

Opening is definitely not a problem for me, because of the ground water I had to run a weeping tile around the pool, so I connect hose to a weeping tile and off it goes (took me almost a day of digging to put it in though)

Maymybonneliveforever wrote: ↑I don't have a pool but my neighbour has a 16'x32' underground, therefore may I ask a question:


Every year when he closes his pool he partially empties his pool and drains it between our houses. He does this again come summer with the aid of a pump and long hose. I'm finding that the grass dies around the area at the end of the hose more so on my side due to the slope in between the houses and it take about 6-8 weeks for the grass to grow back. Is it possible that the water draining from the hose re pool water is killing the grass since it may contain chlorine? I'm not sure why he doesn't drain it down his driveway since that is also sloped and his drain hose is long enough?

I think it is possible, especially if he has old style chlorinator

CaptSmethwick wrote: ↑There would almost definitely be chlorine in it now but it's usually pretty weak by the time that people close their pool.

jjtsl wrote: ↑Don't you have to shock the pool and pour in other winterizing chemicals such as algaecide before closing? If so, the water at the end of the season should have a slightly higher concentration of chlorine and other chemicals.

barsuk666 wrote: ↑I think it is possible, especially if he has old style chlorinator

They've hardly used the pool this year as they don't want to turn on the gas heater, (conserve) so the water had turned green. They also don't have the pump running during the week. maybe on some weekends and usually every other weekend. It got so bad that they had to leave the pump running for three days straight and I'd imagine they had to use a lot of chlorine to get it back to a clear colour. Water still isn't that clean since the pump isn't running anymore and the pool is still not used based on it being too cold. When they drain it soon won't there be a lot of chlorine in the drain pipe going between our houses?

Unfortunately having intellectually challenged neighbors has some downsides
So they do not swim as a result do not use heater - fine.
But in order to conserve electricity they let turn water turn to green, so they have a chance to fight it with obscene amount of chemicals later on - stupid and unlikely saves them any money (depending on a pump, since in many cases they are over-sized, running 6-8 hours a night is more than enough).

As to the grass, I can't see how pumping water from the pool that is being shocked to kill algae could be good for it.

To save $100 on closing, I'm partially closing my pool which means the only thing I'm doing is actually lowering the water, taking off the ladder and sinking the lights (the pool company takes care of the rest). So here's a dumb question: how do I sink the lights? Do I remove the lights after dropping the water - do you actually "sink them" below the water level or do you fully take them out?

To sink the lights, I weigh them down so they drop to the bottom. I usually just tie a plastic grocery bag with some rocks in the bag and tie it around the light.

Not to hijack the thread but does anyone know a cheap company to close pools in the West Island (montreal). I'd like to watch them do it 1 year before I attempt doing it myself.

littlemykee wrote: ↑To sink the lights, I weigh them down so they drop to the bottom. I usually just tie a plastic grocery bag with some rocks in the bag and tie it around the light.

...before you sink them, do you actually have to go into the water and disconnect the lights first (Iknow dumb question!)

I can unscrew the lights from their housing and dropping them by lying down on my stomach and leaning into the pool. The water would have already been lowered below the return jets.