When Should You Close Your Pool?
The short answer is not yet. The long answer is it depends. In this article, we break down when you should close your pool so you can decide what works best for you.
Let’s answer the question, “When should you close your pool?”
We always encourage our customers to close late and open early. In the long run, this saves you money and time. It also means you can enjoy your pool longer.
While many of our customers do close their pools each winter, we have some who leave their pools open. They aren’t necessarily using them in the coldest parts of the winter, but they are still enjoying the view. Other customers extend their seasons with pool heaters.
If you are thinking about closing your pool, here are some things to think about.
What is the Temperature?
People across the United States will close their pools at different times. Someone in northern California may wait until November, while someone in Idaho may close in September. Other people in other states may never close their pools.
In our part of the country, most people close their pools sometime in late September, October or November. If you don’t have a pool heater, you will probably opt to close on the earlier side.
If you wait to close your pool, it’s imperative that you keep your pump running and your water moving. This keeps it from freezing. It’s worth noting that if you lose electricity and the temperature goes below freezing, your water will freeze in your pump and filter.
When your pool is closed, you don’t have to worry about anything freezing because you’ve winterized your pool and drained the water from the system (but not out of your pool).
How Many Trees Do You Have?
If your trees are overhead and dumping leaves in your pool, you might also want to close earlier. While you can clean the leaves, if you have a lot of them falling, it can be a real hassle.
If the leaves are already in your pool, you want to get them out and clean the pool before closing. Why? They will stain your pool.
Do You Want to Continue to Maintain It?
If, by September or so, you are tired of maintaining your pool, and you aren’t concerned with the view, you might want to consider closing your pool until spring.
Time to Winterize to Close Your Pool
When it comes time to close and winterize your pool, you can do it yourself, or you can have our expert service techs take care of it for you.
If you’re doing it yourself, here are some tips:
- Thoroughly clean and brush your pool.
- Vacuum the bottom.
- Bring us a water sample for your free water test.
- Shock and sanitize your swimming pool.
- Let the chemicals filter for 24 hours.
- If you drain some of the water out, don’t go below the skimmer.
- Remove the plugs and water from your pump and filter system as well as your heater.
- Blow out your pool’s plumbing lines and plug them in. Add a skimmer plug.
- Put any removable ladders, handrails, steps, diving boards, and toys from the pool.
- Cover your pool.
Sound like a lot to close your pool? We can do it for you. Contact our service department today!
Service Department
