Closing the Pool for Winter

I never managed to get my pool clear this summer. I gave up. It DID clear for a few days, but as soon as I turned the pump on again, it was back to being a horrible green mess. Based on conversations I've had with the local pool place, it sounds like I need to change the sand in the filter, as I have no idea when it was last done (I bought the house in fall 2012, and have no idea when the sand was last changed).

Any recommendations on closing the pool? I'm in Indiana, and it's turning cold here, so I know I need to get things taken care of.

I'm tempted to just drain the pool completely, get in and scrub down the walls, and then start fresh in the spring by filling it then.

Wow! You've been "pool-stored"! You almost NEVER need to change your sand. While I don't know for certain, of course, I can guess:
You've almost certainly had an imbalance of chemicals you couldn't ID because your pool store either doesn't know, or doesn't want you to know so it can sell you lots of stuff you don't need.

I'm guessing you have a masonry pool--you cannot empty a vinyl pool and it CAN be dangerous for a masonry pool if you have a lot of ground water.

What you need is a good test kit and an understanding of how surprisingly simply pool care is. But without the test kit you are flying blind. We recommend the Taylor K-2006 or K-2006C FAS-DPD test kit.

And I suggest you go to our sister site, PoolSolutions.com, and start reading about testing yourself, getting your chemicals at the grocery store, and the centerpiece of our methods: The BBB Method, for Bleach, Borax and Baking Soda.

Pool care shouldn't be tough. It comes down to 2 1/2 things:
1) Sanitation--that's making sure you have enough chlorine and we can guide you on that.
2) pH--remember that from your high school chemistry.
1/2) Stabilizer, which is Isocyanuric, or Cyanuric acid, which is usually called CYA. Stabilizer is like sunscreen for chlorine, that keeps it from breaking down too fast. But the more you have, the more chlorine you need as a base.

Combine that with daily testing and chlorine/pH adjusting, which takes 2 to 5 minutes, with once-a-week full testing and maintenance, 15-60 minutes, depending, and you'll have a clear pool that doesn't drive you crazy.

You can get the Taylor K200 kit that Carl mentioned above through this link:> http://pool9.net/tk/ (You won't be able to find it locally.)

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