closed but not covered

hi all,

AAAARRGHHHHH! that is from the frustration of dealing with a national chain of pool and outdoor stores that i will not mention, although i will say that the name is the same as the sidekick of a well-known fictional english detective.

in any case, i bought a new safety cover and arranged to have it installed monday afternoon, then had the pool closed and winterized monday morning. first, the installer "couldn't make it" on monday, then he brought out the cover yesterday to find that it didn't fit.

my question: what do i do now? i yelled at them several times and told them they need to get someone out TODAY to put a temporary cover on the pool, but i'll be absolutely stunned if that actually happens. suggestions? i'm flat-out not covering it myself. i made that clear to the manager. but i don't want to screw up the chemical balance i had. how long can i let it sit without cover before i'm really in trouble? how do i mix in more bleach when the FC starts to fall without being able to run the pump? why in the WORLD did i order from that ridiculous store against my better judgment?

i shocked the night before closing, then put in two more gallons of regular bleach in the AM, as well as a quart bottle of polyquat. 18'x36' inground in southern ohio, where it's still unseasonably warm and sunny.

thanks.

You can still add bleach to the pool without the pump--just stir it well with your pole, a broomstick, or anything else you have handy, to eliminate "hot pockets" of chlorine. It's not quite as efficient as the pump, but it will work, and it's better than nothing. If you added the polyquat after you shocked, you'll probably notice that the FC has already fallen....I don't use it, but almost all other accounts I've read of people who do find that the poly pretty much uses up all the chorine. Most shock it again after the poly addition.

Hopefully they'll get out with a cover that fits today!!

Janet

Unless you have a good reason to use a Winter safety cover, like a safety issue, why cover? I quit using my Loop-Lock years ago because it was more hassle than it was worth. Snow, melt, freeze, repeating all Winter and come late Winter the thing would be frozen in a block of ice. I keep the equipment going as long as possible and open as early as possible. As for circulation when the regular equipment is out-of-service, consider a cheapo submersible pump from Home Depot or similar place.
Al
BTW...I'm in the far Northeast corner of PA so I know what cold is too.

I second that. Whatever your Cl level, it won't be maintained much past a couple days, with or without a cover. Count on that cover to make the pool safe, and to keep leaf debris, etc. out, but that's it.

Not needing a safety cover myself, I'll pull a leaf net over to catch the Fall Bounty. When the trees have finished I'll pull it off, dump it and replace, then go thru the closing rituals and let the net freeze into the ice.

And Upstate NY, at 1000' elevation gets plenty of ice too.

C.