Can you leave your pool open?

This is our first season with our new pool, and we live 70 miles from the coast in South Carolina. Does everyone "close" their pools in the winter if they are not swimming? I can see leaving them open if you live somewhere where it is warm enough to swim, but we won't be swimming past October (even though we have a heater). I am assuming if we don't cover the pool, we will have to continue to add chemicals and run the pump all winter. Does it make more sense financially to buy a cover and do all the "closing" stuff? I'd like to hear from some other pool owners in the South to find out what they do.

Judy, there are a number of people here that don't close their pools. From what I can recall, they slowly reduce their pump run time and lessen the cl they add, and eventually only have the pump run when the temp gets below 30 deg. I believe Aylad does this in Louisiana, perhaps she'll see this and expound where necessary. In the mean time, enjoy the pool :) !!

I don't close mine and I am in Northern CA. Last winter I was able to reduce pump time to 2 hours (normally 6 hours in summer) and chlorinator down to about .5 ppm. The water temp got down below 50 at one point but never below 45 degrees. I did continue to use vacuum since that is a high leaf drop time for us. This winter, I may just use a leaf rake since the leaf basket would fill every day anyway.

My pool has never been closed. In Northwest Louisiana, we get maybe 6 or 7 nights below 20 degrees in the average winter...When the water temp gets to below 60, I shock it, then decrease my pump run time to 2-3 hours a day (and don't panic if I skip a day). If the temp is to go below 29degrees I run it at night and leave it running until it warms to above 30. I run Polaris once a week just to get anything out that went in from my neighbor's trees, and my chlorine consumption drops to a bottle a week or so. Stays crystal clear all winter. When the water warms up enough to swim, I shock it again (for general purposes) and go swimming!

Janet

We live in central NC about 1 hour south of Raleigh about 2 hours north of Florence, SC (my hometown)... and we have never closed our pool the 7 years we have had it. We keep our pump running for the most part all the time and I check the chemicals about every two weeks, run the Polaris as needed. It is so nice to look out on a dreary winter day and see a sparkling pool and on the few days that we get of snow it is absolutely beautiful. If power goes out and very cold we drain the pump.

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Originally Posted by joliecharlie

We live in central NC about 1 hour south of Raleigh about 2 hours north of Florence, SC (my hometown.

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What a coincidence...I am located in Florence! When did you move away?

Thanks for all the replies. I feel much better now. I really don't like the look of a cover all winter. So if I am hearing all of you correctly, I just need to make sure that if the temp is cold enough to make the water freeze in the pump or lines, I need to run the pump continuously. Other than that, maybe run it a couple of hours a day. I guess the chlorine consumption drops because of the cold temps?

Hi Judy,
I moved to NC in 1981, but go to Florence at least 2x per month as my parents are still there. Are you a native or a transplant? Hope you enjoy your pool as much as we have ours and like I said it really gives a dull winter day hope for better weather!
Mary Beth

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Originally Posted by joliecharlie

Hi Judy,
I moved to NC in 1981, but go to Florence at least 2x per month as my parents are still there. Are you a native or a transplant? Hope you enjoy your pool as much as we have ours and like I said it really gives a dull winter day hope for better weather!
Mary Beth

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Hi,

I am a native of Florence. Whereabouts are your parents? When I got married I moved to Timmonsville and lived there until last year, when we bought a house in Forest Lake. We just built the pool this year and we are loving it! But we didn't buy a cover and with all this talk of closing and opening pools, I was wondering if I needed to do that. I don't like the look of a cover, but I also don't want to look at a big green swamp all winter either!

It won't turn into a swamp over the winter, my neighbors don't take very good care of their pool and theirs does fine...actually looks better in the winter than summer. The covers never appealed to us because of the debris they collect plus we have pets and I really didn't want to risk them getting into trouble walking on it.
My parents live off Second Loop Road, near Highland Park Methodist Church. My father had a drugstore Palmetto Pharmacy(where the Garner Law firm is now ) for 30 years or more. He is retired for the most part but fills in
at Moss Pharmacy and Dixon Drug.
I love the area that you are in, Florence has grown so much..not a small town anymore!
Someone will probably tell us to go to private messages rather than use the forum....
Mary Beth