Seasons shift from hot summers to frosty winters, and your pool maintenance routines must adapt accordingly. Turn your backyard into a beloved oasis by keeping your pool clean and pristine. A well-maintained pool does more than just catch your neighbor’s eye; it enhances the swimming experience and protects your investment. Regular maintenance wards off costly damage and prolongs your pool’s lifespan. Consider these essential tips for closing your pool this winter and opening it again next summer.
How to Maintain Your Pool as the Seasons Change
Keeping your pool water clean stands as the most crucial aspect of pool maintenance. Deploy a robotic pool cleaner to efficiently remove dirt and leaves that settle on the bottom. Vigorously brush the inside walls with a firm brush to reach the deepest corners, significantly enhancing your pool’s lifespan. Always skim the surface for debris from trees or insects. A final deep clean before closing for the season ensures a pristine pool ready for next summer.
Test Your Water with Treatments
Regularly testing your pool’s pH levels is crucial for ensuring safe swimming conditions. Maintaining a pH between 7 and 7.4 is ideal. Low pH levels (more acidic) can cause corrosion of the pool’s inner walls, skin and eye irritation, reduced chlorine effectiveness, algae buildup, and allow harmful bacteria and viruses to thrive, potentially causing skin and ear infections. High pH levels (more basic) can lead to scale buildup, hardening of calcium deposits on pool surfaces, cloudy water, and similarly reduced chlorine effectiveness.
Using test strips is the best way to ensure a desirable pH level for your pool. If your test strips read over or under a pH level of 7 to 7.4, using chemicals that are either acidic or alkaline (basic) will help balance your pH levels to maintain a longer lasting pool
Lowering Water Levels to Prepare for Winter
As temperatures drop, ensure your pool’s water levels are not too high. For most outdoor pools, lowering the water by 6-8 inches proves ideal, depending on the severity of your winters. Always drain the water below your skimmer when closing for winter to prevent water from freezing inside, which can cause extensive and costly damage. This adjustment allows the water to freeze beneath any cover without overflowing and harming the pool. If necessary, install an ice protector in your skimmer to effectively prevent ice formation and reduce the risk of pool damage.
When summertime rolls around, simply add back 6-8 inches of water after these steps to make your pool look as though it never froze over.
Covering Your Luxury Pool
Properly covering your pool is essential to protecting your pool from winter conditions and ensuring a smooth transition in the summer. One of the most effective ways to cover your pool is putting an inflatable cushion beneath your pool cover to create a dome at the center of the pool.
Some of the benefits to an inflatable cushion between the water and cover are:
- Prevention against water accumulation
- The cushion allows rain and snow to flow directly off the pool
- Supporting the cover
- A cushion provides physical support to the cover which prevents it from caving in and becoming damaged over time; most damages to a pool cover come from excessive weight by rain or snow in the center of the cover
- Protects against freezing
- The cushion helps stop the cover from freezing which in turn prevents the cover from being damaged when opened in the summer
Throughout the winter, you should be periodically checking the pool cover for any build ups in rain or snow which can put pressure on the cover.
Seasonal Pool Advice from the Shoreline Team
By following these tips and investing in the right equipment, you can rest easy knowing that your pool will be ready for another season of fun and relaxation next summer. For any other advice or tips on maintaining your pool, call Shoreline Pools at (203) 357-1544.