Your Swimming Pool And Winterizing It

It’s nearly winter, its time for winterizing. Winterizing or winterization is the process of preparing your homes, summer houses, cars, boats and even lawn and yard for the harsh temperature of winter. It is important to prepare your water and irrigation systems for the winter, to avoid any pipes bursting because of water freeze and your cars to avoid crashes and accidents.

Another home feature that requires winterizing is the swimming pool. When winterizing a pool, the first step is clear the pool of any kind of debris or contaminants. You could use nets, filters, and poles with nets to clear the water of any contaminants. You could start winterizing your swimming pool as early as autumn.

If you have an above-ground pool, check if it has any leaks and cover it immediately. There are many pools that are damaged because of a simple leak. Since the water would turn into ice and would expand, the walls of the above-ground pool will experience pressure. This pressure could be dangerous especially if there is a crack or a leak already existing.

Aside from cleaning it, also check the water chemistry of the pool. You should ensure that the chemical balance is maintained. A balanced pool water chemistry would ensure that the surface of the pool is free of staining and etching.

To make things easy for homeowners, there are some manufacturers who would release winter kits. These winter kits would include winter chlorine, winter alkalizer, and some winter powder. These winter kits would ensure that the pool will stay clean until after the winter season. It is important to read manufacturer instructions when putting or using these winter chemicals in your pool.

After adding the winter chemicals and clearing out the filters, you would need to make sure that all proper places are covered. Plumbing lines should be free of any kind of water, you could use a shop vac to do that. This would blow out water from each filter line. Then make sure that it is covered with plugs. Aside from the lines, make sure that the pump is also drained.

You would also need to have a pool cover. Some would recommend the use of a floatation device in the middle of the pool before covering it. The use of this floatation device would allow the ice to push towards the middle of the pool, this would relieve the pools walls from pressure which can cause support problems later on. When covering your pool, make sure that it is covered tightly. You do not want the pool cover to fly away along with a strong wind or rain.

Make sure that there are no chemicals like chlorine and bromine tablets left in any part of your pool, whether it is in the bottom of your pool or in your feeder. This would cause serious damage to the pool, the feeder and other equipment.

Proper pool winterizing would ensure that you would be experiencing sparkling waters during the warmer climate and at the same time ensure a longer life span for your pool.