When do you open your pool?

[Jeffski]

I live in Michigan, this is my first winter with the pool in the backyard, when do most people open up their pools for the summer? Mid-May?

My plan is to have the PB open it for me. What do they need to do other than add a few feet of water to my IG? Is it stupid to be paying someone to do this?

[JohnT]

I live in Michigan, this is my first winter with the pool in the backyard, when do most people open up their pools for the summer? Mid-May?

My plan is to have the PB open it for me. What do they need to do other than add a few feet of water to my IG? Is it stupid to be paying someone to do this?

I open mine when the water hits 60. Varies quite a bit from year to year. The whole winterization/de-winterization process is pretty simple. Don't know if I'd say it's stupid to pay for it, but it only takes a couple of hours for me, including pump and lines preparation, removing the board and stand, all of the ladders and rails and installing the winter cover.

[doggie]

We live in Michigan also. We used to open at the end of May, but we might start opening sooner and just use the heater alot more.

The first year we had the pool, we hired them to open and close it. All we did was watch exactly what they did. From then on, we've opened and closed it ourselves. It's quite simple really.

Good luck, and happy swimming!

[CarlD]

It's not hard to open your pool. There's no magic. You have to add enough water to be able to run the pump and filter. You hook them up, make sure all the returns and drains are uncapped and open and all plumbing is hooked up.

Then you have to clean it up. Lots of vacuuming usually.


You need to test your water and find out where you are, then adjust it as needed.

[aylad]

Mine stays open year round...but we don't have near the severe cold that you do. My kids went swimming yesterday!!
Janet

[Watermom]

My pool stayed uncovered all winter. Checked it a few days ago - water temp was 60 and I had no chlorine. So, I topped off the water level and hooked up my filter and pump and added a couple of bottles of bleach. Temp here in the low 80s today. Hope to get my solar panels hooked up before too long. Don't want to waste all the warmth! One problem we have is that with all the flowering trees, there is a ton of stuff that falls in the pool in early spring until all the leaves come out and replace all the buds. It makes quite a mess in the pool. We should be swimming by late April or early May hopefully.

Edit - checked it today, water temp is up to 67. Up 7 degrees in the last 4 days.

[tsandershsa]

Had ours open for about 3 weeks now, waters beautiful! Outside temp hit 81 degrees today and the pool is at 71 degrees so the kids and I jumped in! Once we got used to it, it wasn't that bad, but the INITIAL shock was a LULU :eek: !!!

Cheers to all for a wonderfull summer! :)

Todd

[Poconos]

Just measured 8" of ice in mine in Northeast PA. Bah.
Al

[waste]

While openig a pool is probably easier than closing one (properly), there are a couple of things that haven't been mentioned.

Make sure all your plumbing connections at the pump/ filter are not leaking (lubing and keeping sure that any "O-rings" stay in their grooves) for unions (aka quick connections), retefloning (after removing ~most of the old tef) any threaded connections. This also includes the various air relief and drains on filters, pumps and filters. ---- Just make sure that you aren't leaking any water nor drawing any air in on the influent side of the pump. IF IT'S ~RUBBER - LUBE IT LIBERALLY WITH A SILICON OR TEFLON BASED LUBE!!!!!!

Clean the cover (obviously - only if you covered the pool :) ) and let it thoroughly dry before folding it and storing it for the summer;

1) Drying the cover on your lawn, too long, can kill the grass
2) Fan folding (or 'sailor folding') will make the installation easier next fall (to do this get 2 people and stand at the back edge of the cover, each of you place your foot ~ 3' in and pull the cover back to the edge, step on the cover at the fold and repeat until you have a nice 3' 'fanfolded' cover, each person starts at their end and makes 2 - 3' folds until you have a nice (and easily mannaged) 3 X 3 cover which can be easily stored for the summer. ** mice and other critters tend to make their homes in stored covers - do whatever you have to to prevent this.

If there's a lot of stuff on the deck sweep or rinse it away before it goes in the pool (optimally, this will have been done before removing the cover)

The rest you know, remove any large debris, check your chem levels, & shock and adjust the other levels.

Enjoy a trouble free swimming season by doing things the "poolforum way" :)

[brittmer]

I live in Iowa and I open my pool at the end of April. I get tired of looking at the covered pool. The water is to cold to swim in but this gives me a couple of weeks to get the water clear and the chemicals just right so that I can turn on the heater by mid May and swim...weather permitting of course. If nothing else, a beer tastes better looking at an open pool than a covered one!! :-)

[aquarium]

Kept ours open all winter, but no swimming until last week. And even then it was only a few minutes. :p

Since it's right outside the back, with a view from inside through three sets of sliding glass doors, I decided to keep it nice looking through the winter. It wasn't too bad to keep clean, and chlorine demand dropped way off, so maintenance was low. When it was really cold, it stayed clear without chlorine anyway.

I drained the pumps the two or three times we had freezing weather. I still have the timers on manual, and run them an hour or two just to clean up the spring stuff falling off the trees.

[KurtV]

Never close. Water is at 77-78 now. May hit 80 tomorrow if we get some sun.

[Sweet]

We keep our pool open year round. My pool was 71 yesterday so my son and I got in. We snorkled down to the main drains with screwdrivers and removed the drain covers. Pool power was off, btw. Both drains where jam packed with leaf debris. I was in for about an hour, swam some laps too (55 laps = 1 mile), so as far as I'm concerned it's pool season here in Dallas Texas.

[webfeet]

Ours stayed open all winter. We've kept it clean. Currently, the water is up to 75 degrees (location S. Arkansas.) Our 5 year old grandson officially opened it about a week ago when the temp was 72. His mom was worried about hypertermia, but she couldn't keep him out. He was fine. He was in and out, mostly in, and it was a hoot to watch him. I may try it at 78 or so, but last fall, I couldn't stand it below 82 degrees. There's a cool snap forecast, so we may drop a couple of degrees in the next few days.

[mammallama]

Just checked the water temp of my pool, it's a balmy 56 degrees!! :eek: No polar bears in THIS neck o'the woods.

I just got back from vacation last week and saw that the iceberg that had been on top of my pool was now gone. In it's place, a green, slimey swamp and developed. Yuck!!

Got the water cleaned up, now I'm in the process of getting my chemical levels in line, then it's up to Mother Nature for the water temp. (With all this global warming, it should heat up in no time, right? ;) ) Hopefully we'll be able to open by Memorial Day. That's my goal.

[Poconos]

Last ice went away yesterday. Air temp 68, water temp 47F Bah. No chlorine, no algae, CYA stayed all Winter, other readings look good. First dunk depends on how much beer and sun. Record of 16 April won't be broken this year. Heck, snow is predicted in a few days.
Al

[CarlD]

BRRRR! Too cold for ME! I like it balmy! If I'm getting into below-75 water, I'm putting on a wetsuit!

BTW, I keep a cheap one in case I have to fix a leak and it's early spring or late fall, and the water's too cold to get into no matter HOW much of a Polar Bear Clubber you are.

[rilesworld]

I have no idea what my water temperature is, but I am in Tennessee and we starting swimming (jumping in I should say) 2 weeks ago. A little on the cold side indeed, but refreshing.

[medvampire]

I am a little east of Knoxville TN. Opened last weekend with water temp around 65. Wouldnt even think of getting in yet. Water has to hit around 80 before I take th eplunge but the kiddies got in for a few minutes.
Steve

[adesalvo]

Pay attention to near by trees. I have a 100 yr old oak tree that is 40 to 50 feet away from the pool. I wait until the "twirly birds" are down (early/mid may) because my pool is in the line of fire. I am in NE Ohio.