7 Tips to Close Your Pool for Winter

Are you ready to close your pool?

As it gets colder, many of our customers are ready to winterize their swimming pools. This means you are shutting it down for the pool season. This can help you take care of your pool and keep it safe while not having to do much to it over the winter. By properly winterizing it, your pool will be in great shape come spring!

If you’re doing it on your own, we’ve got some suggestions to help you. In this article, let’s look at seven tips to close your pool for winter.

#1: Balance Your Water

The first thing you want to do before shutting your pool down is make sure your pool water is balanced. It’s important that you have a good handle on your water chemistry.

By balancing your pool water, you will be ready to open your pool in the spring without any costly or labor-intensive problem.s

Test your pool before closing it to measure the following, and remember, you can bring us your water sample, and we’ll test it for free. We’ll let you know just what you need.

Test for pH to measure the acidity of your pool water. You want to ensure your pH is just where you want to avoid any algae issues. Keep your pH between 7.2 and 7. 6 PPM.
Measure your total alkalinity because it affects your pool’s pH. It should be around 100 PPM.
Test your calcium hardness. You always have calcium in your pool, but you don’t want them to be too high or too low. If so, it can cause scaling and corrosion. Keep your calcium content between 100-400 PPM.

We also recommend using winterizing chemicals from BioGuard as you close your pool for the season. Stop by one of our two stores for some help.

#2: Shock Your Pool

It’s important to take care of your chlorine before you close your pool.

By having proper chlorine levels, you prevent algae, break down bacteria, and keep your pool crystal clear and clean.

So, before you close your pool, shock it with chlorine. Do this a couple days before you plan to close your pool.

#3: Clean Your Pool Equipment and Accessories

First, remove all of your skimmer baskets, slides, wall fittings, vacuums, pool cleaners, heaters, ladders, and handrails.

Clean everything and let them dry. Then store them somewhere safe and dry.

After this, you can clean your pool.

#4: Lower the Water Level

It’s standard practice to lower the water level of your pool between four and six inches. This is usually to the return line and at least below the skimmer.

#5: Drain Your Equipment

Now it’s time to drain your pool pump, filters, heaters, and chlorinating equipment.

You can drain the water from each of these, or you can use a shop vac and blow out the lines.

When you clean your filters, make sure they dry completely.

#6: Empty Your Chemical Feeder

If you have one, you want to drain it and empty it. Please don’t leave any chemicals in your chemical feeder.

#7: Add Your Winter Cover

The final step is to add a swimming pool cover. If you’re using your current one, you want to make sure it’s in good condition. If it’s not, please come see us to order a new one.

A winter safety cover like the ones we carry from Loop-Loc will keep your pool, children, and pets safe.