It's mid-wintertime for pools, in DMV and as I gathered some scary experiences this cold cold winter, I decided to do winterization post for homeowners, or property managements who have their aquatic facilities managed by professionals.
How do you know your pool is even winterized?
Can you trust your pool company?
I'm very uncomfortable writing about unfinished work by others, but this one I find important since I'm not sure it's even technicians' fault, if they had little training or no training at all. Pool industry is just one fighting labor shortages. I'm sure everyone agrees with me, we're doing what we can, with what we have, to keep pools blue and running.
We answered a few calls and then we see pools winterized but still damaged, equipment frozen, no antifreeze, no plugs, just covered with safety cover. This is an issue, first of all, if water in skimmers freeze, then skimmer cracks, water can possibly find its way under the house or deck, it can make a structural or foundation damage even to the house. But also, if pipes are filled with water and we know ice grows, can cause cracks, you can have a leak and more of those costly to repair damages.
To be sure your pool is winterized properly, it's very easy and visually inspectable, you just need to make a round, and look for following:
*Water should be lowered and balanced for the winter.
*You should see skimmers filled up with antifreeze but also plugged (because pipes are now blown and empty)
*Return lines are also plugged
*No water in equipment
*All the plugs for the filter, pump(s), heater, chlorinator... should be stored in a hair strainer in the filter pump
*System turned off
Technicians often miss to do some little thing or winterize pool differently, but most importantly no water should be left in lines, skimmers or in the system.
To learn more on how to winterize, or maybe if you can keep your pool open for the winter, in my next post.
Thanks for being here!