Just remembered this advice I hadn't seen yet: don't store any chemicals in your garage.

Quad Dog said:

---

Just remembered this advice I hadn't seen yet: don't store any chemicals in your garage.

---

Uhhh ya. Learned that the hard way. My garage concrete is stupid hard. Had to go and rent a hell of a drill from Home Depot when putting in some concrete anchors for a garage door brace for hurricane season. We somehow knocked over an old bottle of muriatic acid. It ate a half an inch deep hole in the concrete about six inches wide. I'm much more careful with the muriatic acid now.

Any oxidizer in the garage will corrode all things metal. That includes chlorine tabs, granular shock, and muriatic acid (remember the caps are vented).

I was going to store my chemicals in my brand new metal shop. Luckily, someone told me not to store them in there. That would have been bad.

Also, thanks for the note about running the pump 1 hour for every 10 degrees. I was about to ask how long to run now that it has cooled off. On a similar note, do y'all turn off features (bubblers, water fall, etc) once the weather cools off in fall?

Obviously dumb question, but where do you store chemicals if not in your garage?

Always run your feature pumps, even if just for a few minutes a week. 1, it turns over the water trapped in that loop, allows it to be chlorinated appropriately, 2, mechanical rotating equipment shouldn't sit without turning for months at a time for many reasons.

Store chems in a plastic outdoor bin away from windows/vents

So, suppose someone has a water feature that shoots a stream of water from the poot deck into the pool. They thought it was cool when put in, but once the newness wore off they kinda stopped turning it on. How concerned should they be about turning back on and pumping water into the pool that has been sitting in those pipes for a couple years....

Run the loop, shock the pool, you will be fine. They aren't going to hold enough volume to where they will really screw up your chemistry in almost any case...pencil jets are the most regretted install ever I think.

My pumps have a spigot on the top so you can use them to drain the pool. If you have the same and are really worried about it you could run the pump with the spigot open to get the old water out of the line. Shouldn't take too long.

Thanks, I have no desire to drain the whole thing just yet, but in the back of my mind just don't want to introduce some mind eating bacteria bug that's been sitting stagnant in those pipes. I just don't know if shock will do the job....

Ps, my wife does at times refer to me as "the safety geek"

It's ok to be a safety geek, here are the numbers. 2 ppm effective free chlorine in water will kill almost every common pool bacteria within 12 hours of exposure. Chlorine will kill CRB (everything else) at 10-12 ppm effective free chlorine within 12-24 hours of exposure. Depending on your dosage, normal shock treatments concentrate free chlorine to 10+ ppm and decrease roughly 1-1.5 ppm/day depending on sunlight exposure and intensity.

Draining by using the spigot on the supply side of the pump as another poster suggested will only evacuate a fractional percentage of the stagnant water on the suction side and none from the return piping.

If the above doesn't put your mind at ease, the only way to practically stop the stagnant water from being introduced to your pool is to divert your pencil jets outside of your pool until the loop has fully turned over. Maybe throw a bucket on them so they drain into your deck.

Thanks, sounds like I will let them run & hit it with some shock. Then get into the habit next year of turning them on on a regular basis.

Put a bucket upside down over the jet. crack it open and let it purge the old water onto your deck. once you are sure the water coming thru is clean, remove the bucket and turn it on completely and run it for a while.

Hose off your pool deck and let sunshine disinfect your pool deck.

Even better, thanks...

DoitBest said:

---

So, suppose someone has a water feature that shoots a stream of water from the poot deck into the pool.

---

There's your problem.

Looks like I stepped right into that one...may be time to have my glasses checked...

Looks like we might get some really cold temps in the next week or so. I just bought some heat tape and plan to construct a box to go around my pool equipment.

Any additional thoughts or suggestions on preparing the pool for cold weather?

Also, if the power goes out and it's below freezing, what's the consensus on next steps?

Make sure all your pumps are running during a freeze event and all your above ground piping has flow. This will prevent damage. Most newer systems have built-in freeze protection.

If you lose power and are expecting freezing conditions to continue, you need to drain all of your equipment. There are drain plugs at the low points of the pumps, the heater inlet/outlet, and the filter housing. Drain all your stuff, flip the breakers off, and you will ride out a freeze just fine.

This is good info, as I have a brand new pool as well. What about the water in the pool as well (in an extended deep freeze, with no power)? Is there risk of damage if the pool freezes over?

Same instructions as above, but pull your skimmer baskets and and place/partially submerge a piece of pool noodle into the skimmers. This will give buffer room for the expansion that takes place in the skimmer well if the surface freezes. Some people remove their weir gate but I don't think that is necessary. Your pool is very unlikely to freeze if you are in Texas other than ice formation at the perimeter tile line and at spillovers. This is generally not harmful to the masonry/coping. I Don't recommend adjusting water levels, maintain normal pool fill.

One more thing, If you have an auto fill / level reservoir, remember to wrap your incoming above ground pipes, shut that valve off, and do the same procedure to the well as you did with the skimmers, be careful not to damage the float for the level adjuster when you do this.

(I meant to reply directly to fire09)

First of all, thank you for your time and being willing to help out here. This thread has been really helpful, and it is particularly helpful in preparing for the weather next week.

Concerning the autofill, we currently have that turned off at the valve. The exposed pipes have foam insulation, and I am thinking about wrapping them in towels to protect them more. Assuming the power is on, should the autofill be opened so that there is flow to and through the pipes? I read your comment above about closing the autofill valve, and I think that is in the context of a power outage.

If your auto fill is like mine it doesn't need power to operate, so losing power doesn't matter.
There should be an above ground back flow preventer similar to a sprinkler system that you will need to close, drain, and then wrap and protect any pipes on the supply side.

I always close the auto fill during a freeze regardless of power loss to protect above ground PVC. If you close the backfoow valve, open the drain ports on the backflow valve and depress the auto fill level mechanism in the reservoir, all the water will gravity drain into the pool and will protect any above ground PVC from freezing and bursting. Now you don't need to worry about your PVC. You still need to wrap and insulate the brass/copper upstream of the backflow valve.

With water circulation (power) your skimmer boxes almost certainly will not freeze, your auto fill reservoir will be the only vulnerable point as it is relatively stagnant. Again, very unlikely event for the types of freezes we get in Texas. Pool noodle is the super preventative.

Spaceship said:

---

This is good info, as I have a brand new pool as well. What about the water in the pool as well (in an extended deep freeze, with no power)? Is there risk of damage if the pool freezes over?

---

Do you regularly see frozen ponds and lakes near you? If not then you probably don't need to worry about the water in your pool. Worry more about the pipes and equipment.
If you regularly see frozen ponds and lakes then look into closing the pool for winter.

Quad Dog said:

---

Spaceship said:

---

This is good info, as I have a brand new pool as well. What about the water in the pool as well (in an extended deep freeze, with no power)? Is there risk of damage if the pool freezes over?

---

Do you regularly see frozen ponds and lakes near you? If not then you probably don't need to worry about the water in your pool. Worry more about the pipes and equipment.
If you regularly see frozen ponds and lakes then look into closing the pool for winter.

---

Pools are much smaller than ponds and lakes, so I'm assuming they freeze faster without water flow. The pond across from me froze in 2021 which admittedly was an extreme event, but that's really why I asked…for those surprise brutally cold snaps.

For freeze protection, our one neighbor just heats his pool up for 24 hours ahead of big blasts to make sure no issues as they water will hold the heat for longer than the freeze lasts.

We just take an empty water bottle or milk jug and put in the skimmer basket. Works same as pool noodle concept.

During Feb 2021 blast our pool did briefly freeze over, but no issues using above jig method.

People who elect to hear their pool as their only method of freeze protections help keep plumbers and pool technicians busy with repairs all spring. It does almost nothing to protect your pool in the event of a power loss.

Agree

Should clarify that my neighbor does that on top of other things noted above...

ktownag08 said:

---

For freeze protection, our one neighbor just heats his pool up for 24 hours ahead of big blasts to make sure no issues as they water will hold the heat for longer than the freeze lasts.

We just take an empty water bottle or milk jug and put in the skimmer basket. Works same as pool noodle concept.

During Feb 2021 blast our pool did briefly freeze over, but no issues using above jig method.

---

My brain is still suffering from post-New-Year' fog.

With the empty water bottle or pool noodle methods, do you put the bottle/pool noodle in the skimmer before the freeze event or after you lose power?

And how do you keep them from being sucked down into the skimmer pipe?

Thanks!

After you lose power. No power no suction to worry about. If you lose power make sure to shut off breakers for all the equipment.