Pool maintenance in winter | Tracer Pool & Landscape

Owning a pool is awesome. You get to swim whenever you want to and your social gatherings are just a bit more fun for everyone. But that awesomeness comes with some responsibility. You need to maintain your pool if you’re going to consistently enjoy it. And the need for pool maintenance doesn’t go away in the winter months when swimming is not an option. Luckily, pool maintenance in winter is actually pretty simple. For the most part, it only takes a little foresight and preparation.

So what do you need to know about winter pool maintenance? What can happen if you don’t take steps to prepare for winter?

Use a Pool Cover

Whether you are winterizing above ground pool in Minnesota or preparing an in-ground pool for the cold, a pool cover is going to be your best friend. It seems like it should go without saying, but keeping stuff out of your pool is really important.

Those last fall leaves, animal waste, and other debris can bring along bacteria and other nasty substances that will fester and leave your water brackish and gross when you attempt to open your pool up in the spring.

And snow getting into your pool can be bad, too. It can bring its own contaminants, but it can also get into your filters and mess them up if there is a melt and re-freeze. So the best thing you can do is keep your pool covered up.

That means inflating your airbag if applicable, tightening appropriate cables, securing water blocks or bags, and generally ensuring your safety components are in place. In a climate that gets a lot of snow, a mesh top cover is not really recommended.

As winter progresses, you will want to make sure the snow on your pool cover doesn’t get too heavy. If your pool cover breaks, it won’t do its job effectively. Use a roof rake to clear snow from your pool cover to keep it in good working order.

Using a roof rake is an especially important aspect of pool winter maintenance when you have an above-ground pool. It’s best to do it when the snow is still fresh and hasn’t had the chance to settle and condense.

Drain the Water to an Appropriate Level

Pool maintenance in winter does not require you to completely drain your pool. What you will want to do is drop the water level to a certain depth. But there are a couple of things you’ll want to do before you start your draining process.

Before draining your pool, you will want to first check for leaks. You don’t want water to wind up in unexpected places. Freezing water expands, so if there is a leak that you haven’t taken care of before winter, it will probably be worse in spring.

Next, you will want to shock your pool with chlorine tablets. It’s a good idea to do this at night and let your pumps circulate the chlorine. This will kill any bacteria that remain in your pool at the end of the swimming season.

Then you can start draining your pool. You will want to drain your pool so that the water level is four to six inches below the skimmer valve. Basically, the most important thing is to get water out of your filters and skimmer so that they don’t get damaged when the water freezes.

As you’re draining the water, feel free to clear debris with your pool skimmer. Getting it as you drain the pool means you don’t have to deal with it later.

Some experts recommend blowing out your pool lines at this point. This is a good idea, but you will want to contact professionals for help on this. While the Do-It-Yourself mindset is great for a pool owner, generally, in this case, a mistake could be pretty costly. So professional assistance is called for.

Pay Attention to the Chemistry

Your pool maintenance kit is full of chemicals to make your pool’s water habitable for swimmers. As you’ve been doing your winter preparation, you’ve likely already dipped into that kit for the chlorine tablets that you used to shock the water before draining it.

When doing your pool maintenance in winter, you will still want to treat the water that remains in your pool. This is to ensure that no stains show up on your pool walls or algae growth occurs. So here are a few things you’ll want to know about your winter pool water.

The pH of your water should be between 7.2 and 7.6. You don’t want it to be too alkaline and you definitely don’t want it to be too acidic. Using a water balancer can help you track and balance your water’s pH level.

Put in a long-life algaecide to prevent growth during winter months. We don’t often think about algae growing when it is well below freezing outside, but temperatures can fluctuate in winter. You can get a few warm days here and there. Taking the precaution at the start of winter ensures that you don’t have to deal with gross algae come the spring.

Finally, you’ll want to put in some off-season enzymes. These will help break down the non-living organic stuff that finds its way into a pool over the course of a season. This can include pollen or animal waste particulates.

Clean Everything

Whether you are doing saltwater pool maintenance, working with an above-ground pool, or have a very low-maintenance pool, you will want to give it a thorough cleaning before you close it up for winter.

Deep cleaning can help you spot potential problems that you need to be aware of before you complete your pool maintenance in the winter checklist. From spotting leaks to getting your filters cleared out and dry, cleaning helps every aspect of your winter pool maintenance.

Keep Your Eye on the Weather

When do you start your pool maintenance in winter? For many people in cold climates such as Minnesota, you can start as soon as summer ends. But if you want to keep things open until the very last minute, you can do that by keeping an eye on the weather.

If the temperature at night starts dipping toward 30 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit, it is time to start winterizing. Hopefully, you haven’t waited too long. The most important thing to remember is that you absolutely do not want your water to freeze and ruin all the expensive parts of your pool that make it swimmable.

Check on Your Pool Regularly

Pool maintenance in winter is not just something you do once and then forget about until the snow melts. You need to check in to make sure your maintenance is working the way it is supposed to.

As previously stated, clearing snow off of your pool cover is important. But it is also important to check on the chemical levels in the water. This assumes that the water is not frozen solid, of course. If it is a mild winter, you may want to check your water more often.

Got Questions About Pool Maintenance in Winter?

For the most part, the work you will do to maintain your pool in winter will be done early in the season. You will need to check in on your pool through the winter, but most of your work is preparation work for the cold months.

If you still have questions about above-ground pool maintenance or what to do about pool sand filter maintenance leading into the winter or during the winter, or anything else regarding your pool, that is totally natural.

The consequences of not properly winterizing your pool can be scary. Feel free to reach out to us. At Tracer Pool & Landscape, we prioritize long-term relationships, and we know a whole lot about swimming pools.

Pool maintenance in winter is all about getting things in order before the weather gets rough and then checking in regularly to make sure everything is on the right track. By taking the time to close down your pool properly, you’ll have a much easier time opening it back up.