Here are a few pool closing myths that we have heard almost every year when it's time to close pools for the winter.
MYTH: You can use any type of anti-freeze.
Pool anti-freeze is a propylene glycol based. Some companies and most RV anti-freeze are an alcohol based product. Alcohol will dry out rubber seals/gaskets and cause plastics to break down. Some manufactures such as Hayward and Jandy will not honor a warranty if alcohol based antifreeze is used to winterize your pool.
Use pool anti-freeze (propylene glycol based) to winterize your lines.
MYTH: You should drain your pool when closing it for the winter.
This is not needed. As long as your lines are winterized properly you don’t need to drain your pool. With vinyl liner pools you should keep the waterline at normal level when closing your pool. If not, it will stretch and dry out causing cracks and holes in the material. Keeping your waterline at normal level will also help prevent damage to your pool cover. When your water is low and the pool cover is weighed down with leaves and snow the cover material will potentially stretch and/or cause a seam separation.
Keep your waterline at normal level when closing your pool.
MYTH: You can reuse winter plugs and gizmos
We recommend replacing your winter plugs and gizmos every year. This is because there is a high freeze risk due to the fact these materials may have pin holes or hairline cracks from the previous winter. They’re also inexpensive and it’s more affordable to prevent the problem rather than fix.
Winter plugs and gizmos NEED to be replaced every closing season.
MYTH: If your pool water is clear when you close, it will be clear when you open.
Several factors such as your water chemistry at closing, leaves and dirt left in the bottom of the pool, type of cover and climate determine the state of your pool water when you open come Spring. Your pool water is also sitting with no circulation or filtration. If there's a warm spell in the winter it's likely you will development an algae bloom. This is preventable by adding GLB Algimycin Winter or GLB Algimycin 2000 when closing. As much as we love opening to a clear pool remember clear water is not always clean water.
You can take steps to prevent a troublesome pool opening but it's not a guarantee.
MYTH: Cement blocks/logs hold down my cover better than water tubes .
Sure they probably do. But when a wind storm knocks a heavy tree limb onto your cover it will pull the cover along with the block into the pool. You don't want to take the chance of a log or cement block damaging your pool liner.
Use water tubes to help protect your investment.
Myth: Adding chemicals throughout winter will help keep my pool clear.
This would be wasteful and unnecessary. Since there is no circulation of water the chemicals aren't able to be dispersed throughout the pool. Therefore, the chemicals aren't able to do there job efficiently.
The only thing you should do is visually inspect the system, pool cover and waterline throughout the winter every so often.
