How To Close A Pool For Winter

It's crucial to winterising your pool to maintain its condition and ensure it's ready for use when warmer weather returns. Ignoring this process can lead to a green pool and equipment damage. Therefore, it's essential to understand the steps involved in properly closing your pool for winter.

When is the Best Time to Close Your Pool for Winter?

Knowing when to close your pool depends on where you live, how cold it gets, how frequently you use it, and your budget. But generally, if you live in a zone with cool winters, the ideal time to winterise your pool is when the water temperature consistently falls under 18 degrees. This helps prevent algae growth in your pool, especially if you use a winter algaecide as a preventive measure. To prepare for winterising your pool, you'll need tools such as a skimmer net, pool vacuum, pool brush, pool testing kits, and necessary pool chemicals.

Step-by-Step Guide to Closing Your Pool for Winter

Step 1: Give the Pool a Deep Clean

This is easier if you've kept on top of your cleaning routine throughout the swimming season. Use a pool brush to scrub the walls and floors, including the steps and areas around the light fittings. This will remove any scum, algae, or stains. Afterwards, run your automatic pool cleaner to pick up any debris and vacuum the pool thoroughly to ensure a clean and sparkling pool.

Step 2: Clean the Filter

Use AstralPool's Filter Cleaner and Degreaser to clean your pool media filter effectively. After treatment, backwash the filter. If you have a cartridge filter, remove it from the housing and give it a good rinse with a garden hose.

Step 3: Balance the Water

It's time to ensure the water in your pool is balanced correctly. You can use a testing kit to check the chemical balance or take a sample to your local pool shop. Based on the results, you can adjust the chlorine, pH, alkalinity, and calcium hardness levels to achieve the right water chemistry. If needed, shock the pool to maintain optimal water quality.

Step 4: Add Winterising Chemicals

Winterising chemicals are crucial to prevent algae growth in your pool during off-peak season. The process should start with adding Phosphate Remover, which eliminates excess phosphates that can accumulate after rainfall or from organic debris. If these are not removed, they can serve as a food source for algae. Next, add a Pool Long Term Algaecide to prevent and treat any algae growth when the pool is closed for winter.

Step 5: Use a Pool Cover

Not everyone likes to cover their pool during winter, but it's the most effective way of safeguarding it against damage. Covering your pool in winter has several benefits, including reducing water and chemical evaporation, preventing debris from entering your pool and disturbing your water balance. If you live in areas with a lot of rain or snow, the cover should be monitored to ensure it doesn't sink in the middle.

Step 6: Check the Equipment is Functioning Properly

Ensure the pool pump is functioning properly. Additionally, if you happen to have a salt chlorinator, it's important to check for any calcium buildup in the cell. If you do identify any calcium buildup, use AstralPool's Salt Chlorinator Cleaner to remove the calcification. It's advisable to run the pump for at least 4 hours daily. While the chlorinator output can be reduced, make sure to regularly check for free chlorine readings between 1-2 ppm and adjust the output as required.

Step 7: Monitor Every Two Weeks

While you're not keeping the same maintenance schedule as you would in summer, during the winter season, you still need to check your pool's chemistry once every two weeks. It's also important to keep an eye on the water level and adjust it as necessary. Make sure to clean the skimmer baskets and remove the pool cleaner from the pool to prevent it from deteriorating. Also, check the filter gauge to see if another backwash is needed.

Your swimming pool is a big investment for your property, and it will need regular pool maintenance to ensure that you can enjoy it for many years. Although you can winterise your pool on your own, we recommend hiring a pool professional to do it for you to give you peace of mind. Just like any skilled technician, an experienced pool professional would have closed a pool several times. They would be able to identify any problems that require attention before reopening the pool in the next season. Are you ready to close your pool for the winter season? If so, we recommend getting in touch with one of our approved dealers to stock up on winterising chemicals.