Freeze Damage...

I don't close my pool in the winter (live in CA). I have my filter come on for a short time daily. In case you haven't heard, we are having a bit of a cold spell (down in the mid 20's).

I had 2 casualties last Saturday, the output fitting on top of my pool cleaner booster pump and the pressure vacuum break valve for the auto-fill. I fixed the booster pump fitting, I went to Home Depot to get pvc parts to make a new one (pipe threads on one side and hose bib threads on the other). The pump blew the hose right off the threads, I guess the hose was froze solid when the pump turned on. This was cheap and easy to fix.

The pressure vacuum break for the autofill is another story, still broke waiting for parts, not in much of hurry this time of year. I ordered a repair kit for it from amazon.com which will ultimately come from www.lawnh2o.com. I got a better price by ordering thru Amazon. It has a metal body with plastic parts threaded into it. The plastic threads is what gave, good design I guess. (Wilkins Model 420).

I only lost about a foot of water in my pool, before I turned off the power.

Notes to self:
- Next time walk slowly and carefully where there may be ice (from the water that is shooting up (10-15 feet) and landing/freezing on the cold sidewalk.
- Ice is slippery
- Concrete is hard
- If you slip and fall on your hip, it will hurt (just bruised luckily - kinda funny now!)
- If water is spraying up out of a pump, and onto/over the pool equipment power panel, don't turn off the power at that panel! Always go to the main power panel (assuming it is dry!) to turn it off. Nothing happened this time, luckily.
- If there are freeze warnings, at least put a blanket over your pool equipment or consider running it all night.
- pipe insulation is cheap
- Ice is slippery
- Concrete is hard

I know..."mid 20's...ha that's not cold!", freezing temps happen just enough to us in the middle of CA for us to forget in between!

Glad I am not a citrus farmer. I only lost roughly $55, some water, time and suffered a bruised ego (er..hip) to this freeze.

We are in Georgia and have temps down into the 20's frequently. Our pool has freeze protection and comes on with a special Intermatic timer if it gets to a certain temp that we set it at. I think 32 degrees. It has come on many times this winter, a few times almost all night. I have noticed a small leak on our pool booster piping too....

I wonder if there is a way to add something like this to my system.

I have the intermatic mechanicals and would like to add some sort of a freeze protection to it without buying a whole new panel (timers etc.) with the freeze control.

Check out Intermatics web site (www.intermatic.com). They have freeze protection devices. Some are add ons for existing systems and some are stand alone.

Hope this helps