Need some help here to see if I have a valid case against my pool company. The 1hp pump that runs the waterfalls wasn't programmed to run as part of the freeze plan and is now busted after the freeze. I confirmed with my pool company before the freeze that the only thing i needed to do was run freeze protection and everything would be fine. Well the main pump ran the whole time and is perfectly fine.

So can I make pool company fix this? I'm thinking they either wired or programmed it wrong and it isn't my fault it busted. Is other people's waterfalls or other water feature pump included in freeze protection? I would have thought both pumps would have been on there.

My opinion…you paid them to freeze protect and did what they said and it failed. They missed an important step. At a maximum maybe a split the cost but really they should be on the hook. Had the issue been due to an unexpected act of god obviously that is different.

I would 100% kindly lay the blame to them and ask them how they will make this right as you paid them as an expert and they completely missed. Be nice but firm especially if you like the group as good pool companies are not always easy to find.

I'd read your contract with them first. I can almost guarantee that if they are big enough or careful enough, there will be verbiage protecting them against this sort of thing. I feel similarly that they should have some responsibility, but then again, I feel its the owner's responsibility to make sure these systems are functioning as expected during the freeze, not after. Personally, I would have asked to have them help me verify that it was part of the programming and then I would have asked to have some education on what that means and what I can expect so I could keep an eye on it. I imagine a freeze protection program is nothing more than pumping water continuously during a threshold temp, which means, that pump should be audibly running.

I could see this going either way.

No matter what, I would call them up and be sweeter than bee poop about it in hopes you are in some gray area and they just take care of it for you.

What is a "Freeze Plan"? Was this a service you paid for? Otherwise, I imagine it would be your responsibility to make sure freeze protection was set to "on" for all pumps. My system changed my settings somehow to off, I had to go back to the panel and change the settings. Each pump has to be set. Sorry that happened.

So couple of points. The pool company programmed the freeze protection setting. So they did not program it to include the waterfall pump. Also, we confirmed with them in the phone before leaving town that there was nothing else we needed to do. And 3rd, we confirmed with the pool service company also and they were under impression that both pumps would be part of freeze protection.

Problem is I was out of town and when I got back it was too late. Obviously at this point I should have clarified but honestly this is what I pay them to do is set up and install the pool equipment properly which I feel they did not do.

As someone said there is always a chance they have slimy "get out of jail" verbiage in an agreement; however, politely lay out the facts and ask them wha they will do to remedy their error.

Hopefully they will do the right thing especially if you have used them for a while and have a good relationship with them. I get your frustration.


Edit: I don't know why it shows that face lol

You might have a case

There were some long & brief power outages while you were gone perhaps.
Some were local to us & experienced as short ones but others near Tabor, TX were long.
Results of which are obvious when a microwave's clock has to be reset but maybe Your Freeze Protection Programming setting got lost if the electronics got a power interruption, then reset to a default program lacking F.P.

In DFW, but we have our water feature (waterfall) drained at the start of winter and, as such,. it does not run during freezing temps, just the main pump.

The pool company seems to have either failed to inform you to winterize water features (or drain them) prior to any freeze or failed in their response to your question as to what you needed to do this past week.

Read your contract but an honorable pool company should cover the costs of repair based on what you describe.

On a related note, as water features often involve plumbing not in the ground or right at the surface of the ground, then winterizing is the best bet. Keep in mind your regular filter pump is going to pull from the bottom of the pool as well where the water will stay warmer / unfrozen. Water features are not plumbed the same.

Good points on water feature winterization if you system is set up to do so. I may do that for remainder of this winter.

Our good friends have a waterfall feature that comes out of the cover over their patio. During Uri, this became a beautiful mess of ice and cracked plumbing. Pool builder was not clear in their instructions for water feature and they got it rebuilt for no cost. YMMV.

My waterfall features/pump were programmed to come on and run with the main pool pump and did just fine during this freeze. I think your pool company should be liable if they didn't set that up properly.

I fortunately noticed that only the filter pump was tagged for freeze protection and caught it in time to enable that on everything.

A neighbor wasn't so lucky!

How much is a 1 hp pump?

I think it's about $1k. Conversation coming soon with pool company. It makes total sense to winterize the waterfall based on plumbing now that I think about it.

Keep us updated. I am genuinely curious about how they respond and how they handle it.

I suspect the temperature sensor may have failed. I'd think that's more likely than someone turning off the freeze protection.

Was walking the dog around the block this afternoon and noticed a flood of water coming from my neighbor's (2 houses down) pool equipment and running down the street. Called, no answer. Went into yard and water was spraying from pretty much every valve. Put it in service mode, and pulled all the plugs on the pumps, heater, and filter due to freeze again tonight. They had lost 3/4 of their pool water.

Hopefully that was the right thing to do. I'm not even sure if they are in the country.

You did the right thing (and something many likely would not or would not know how too) but maybe too late with what you described as far as the spewing and the level of water.

These stories are why I hate winter travel and glad we got back from vacation 2 days before this storm came through.


Edit: I keep doing that face when I post through the new app. Need to check each time I guess…

Hope it goes well, OP, your success will likely depend on your relationship with your pool builder. There is very limited liability on the installer for freeze events as long as the equipment was installed correctly. Your freeze protection settings on your controller being disabled is generally not considered an installation issue. I learned this in 21 when fighting for replacement equipment with my OEM.

I'm curious the outcome of this. My freeze protection did include my booster pump for the cleaner and ran the entire time.

My advice: if your going to be out of town during a freeze, drain your equipment. Don't count on power not being lost. Too much risk. Even if your in town, still need to wake up every few hours and check to make sure everything is running.

2nd piece of advice: learn how to do everything with your pool, including the programming. When My pool builder handed me the keys, I made him explain how to program it as well.

My opinion is the responsibility for your pump cracking is somewhere in the middle....but my opinion is irrelevant.

Yeah, in hindsight, you are absolutely correct. The pump was super easy to drain and now I don't know why we didn't just do it except I was told I didn't need to. Lesson learned for next time. We were finally able to get the cover off the pump and the entire housing is cracked but looks like the motor is perfectly fine. So we are hoping to just replace the water flow house if that's possible.

Should be. I just replaced the basket end of my pump (Hayward tristar) just recently due to a crack.
Bought new seals and did it myself. ~$250