products needed to close pool

[poolhelp101]

this will be my first year to close my pool myself and it has also been my first year to use BBB.. so i will need your guidance to do this when the time comes, but right now, would the experts or someone please tell me what products i am going to need to close the pool. i live in a small town and if i am going to need poly q. or anything i can buy like at walmart or kmart, i would appreciate your letting me know as i have noticed that items such as these are going fast at my locations. i have an inground pool, vinyl liner, 21,000 gallons of water. please advise me on this.
thank you.

[CarlD]

Here's how I close my pool:

I get it very, very clean and the water balanced and shock it up to 15ppm, using ordinary bleach.

Then I add one quart of polyquat 60%, any brand and wait 24 hours.

Then I test my water, and shock it up to 15ppm again, with ordinary bleach.

Then I close. I lower the water below the skimmer, and the returns, plug the returns, cap the skimmer and freeze my B*** off plugging the low drain, unless I chicken out and put on a wet suit.

I disconnect all the plumbing, drain it, and put it in the basement, including the pump. I drain the sand filter, leave the bottom drain plug off, pull the six-way valve and put in the storage/shipping positioner, cover it with a couple of plastic bags, and duct tape it.

Then I cover the pool with a mesh safety cover.

Every spring I open to clear water with lots of dust/pollen on the bottom. No algae.

Since you have an inground you'll have to blow out the lines, fill them with pool-safe antifreeze or they'll crack. I've never done that so I don't know how.

[poolhelp101]

thank you very much for these directions.
that doesn't sound too hard to do...can you believe i have paid 300.00 for many years to close my pool? and i know they never done half the things you do. as i get ready to do this, i know i will have questions about these steps...and i hope you will bear with me as i will probably ask dumb questions. right now i will get to my walmart and buy the polyquat before that gets gone and more bleach. thank you again and i hope you will help me when i start to close. thanks!

[CarlD]

I forgot: I do pull out my drop-in wedding cake steps and the ladder. I have solar panels so I have to blow them out. I don't need anti freeze in them.

I also wash and dry my solar cover before folding it up and storing it in my shed.

I'm not ready to think about closing! Not when we get triple digit heat every day this week!

[poolhelp101]

i'm no where near ready to close either. triple digits here too. just when you live in a very small town like me...you gotta buy what you need while it's still available. thanks for all the info Carl.

[clayw1963]

Carl D,
How large is your pool? Is that quart of polyquat based on pool size? Should more or less be added based on pool size?

[LynnR]

ok it has been awhile since I was here.Things are going great with my BBB pool.:D .I have been thinking about how to close the pool for the winter,so here goes, what exactly is poly quat? Where do I find this? I feel really stupid now.Thought I was learning a little.Thanks for all your help.

[waste]

Lynn, don't feel stupid, I'm sure no one is born knowing what polyquat is. Poly quat is short for an impossibly long name of the active ingredient (and the only active ingredient on the label). The 60 in 'poly 60' stands for 60% (of the poly quat), this diffences it from poly 30 or poly 10 (30% and 10% respectively). Some of the other algicides use amonia (and other stuff) or copper, it's always a good idea to check the active ingredients.
The folks here say to only use the poly 60 however, I say that if you can get a better deal on poly 30 (the cost of 2 qts poly 30 < cost of 1 qt poly 60) buy the poly 30, but add both quarts. The forum regularly advocates comarison shopping on bleach (comparing the chlorine % to the cost per bottle and amount per bottle) to insure that you get the most for your dollar. I say apply the same to algicide, if you should somehow luck into a 12 qt case of poly 5 being less than a quart of poly 60, buy the case and use it all to do the same job as the 1 qt of poly 60. To the best of my knowledge the 'inert' ingredient in any poly is ... water, & maybe a little coloring.
I hope I've explained this well, if not someone else will come along and clarify.
Welcome to the forum and congrats on running BBB sucessfully!! :) If ever you need help, don't hesitate to ask - "The only stupid question is the one unasked!" - Waste

[matt4x4]

For my AG pool, I do it similar to CarlD. Take out my steps - usually a month before closing since I don't like 50 degree water to get them out!
Clean the pool as good as is gets, shock to 15ppm, one day later add a quart of poly 60. Let that circulate for a day or so, bring it to 15ppm again, after another day I usually vac to waste to lower my water level, once I get relatively close to where I need to be, I switch to backwash and backwash the filter for 5-10 minutes, then rinse it.
Disconnect my hoses, pump and multiport valve, bring all that inside, get the garden hose, stick it into the filter tank and into the media to wash my zeobrite as much as possible - all submersed guck usually floats up and out over the rim.
Once it flows clean and clear, I put the hose away, open the drain plug on the tank, get an oversized HD garbage bag, place it over the tank and bungee it above the drain plug so it can drip without landing on the plastic garbage bag.
I also keep my shutoff valves open with a board leaning under them against the pool so any water that needs to run out runs down the board and ends up about 2 feet from the pool wall instead of directly at the pool wall.
I roll up the solar cover, wrap it in a white plastic sheet to prevent heat buildup in it - it stays outside all winter.
I don't cover my pool, we don't have trees nearby so it's not necessary.
Pool freezes pretty much solid where we are, I open relatively early to crystal clear water with dirt and pollen that will clean up in 2 days of running the creepy crawley.
Many of my neighbours wait too long to open and end up opening a green swamp that takes them another 2 weeks to clear up - I open in april - by that I mean I close the shutoffs to accumulate the rain (we're on a well), and by may I'm installing the pump and shocking so I don't get the green pond - much less work that way.