First time closing, suggestions welcome!

[Mom2Czars]

I bought a solid winter cover for the pool (24' round ABG in NH). Being up north, I'm anticipating lots of ice and snow.

When I bought the cover, the pool store "gave" me everything I would need to close the pool :ahem:. They gave me 2 gallons of winterizer, 2 floaty chlorine tab things, a 4x5' air pillow, antifreeze for the pump, etc. I'm not sure what of all that I really need. I bought those pool cover clips to use rather than the cable/winch.

I plan to drain below the skimmer/eye return and disconnect all the hoses. I also plan to bring the pump/filter right into the basement for the winter to avoid the whole freeze/thaw thing. I should also remove the 3 pieces of the eyeball, yes?

I figure to put the air pillow in, NOT use the winterizer they gave me since it's just strong algaecide of the wrong variety. I have some polyquat I'll use instead, right?

What about those floaty chlorine tab things? Are they at all useful? I can string them up with nylon rope. I know they'll have some CYA in them, but that's not a big issue (mine is <30).

Being up north, the weight of ice and snow can be an issue. I'm told that these clip things will give way at some point and that's not a totally bad thing since it will release some of the pressure. Is this correct? Do I need to bring water-filled bleach bottles into the picture at some point?

[nicole12]

I live in Mass. I have an above ground pool that freezes solid during the winter. The first year I drained below the skimmer and return (didn't have a return or skimmer plug). I left the return eye as is, didn't take it apart. I brought the filter/pump into the garage. Used an air pillow and the winter cover with clips and the cable that came with the cover. Not sure what type of filter you have but moving the sand filter caused a lateral to break, I guess when the sand shifted.

The following year I bought a return and skimmer plug drained about 3/4 way down the skimmer, brough the pump into the basement and I replaced my sand in the sand filter so that wasn't an issue to bring in also.

This year I don't think I'm going to use an air pillow, I'm going to take in the top valve from the sand filter, the pump but leave the sand filter covered with a garbage bag.

I have never used chlorine floaters during the winter, I just shock the day I close the pool and so far I've always opened to crystal clear water.

[tenax]

that seems to make sense to me nicole..if you're pool is clean going into the close, i'm assuming that you're not facing much risk of algae development. in my case, the pool always needs to be shocked at spring start because a) it's not winter covered) b) i've had no leaf net so i get tons of leaves and such c) i don't raise the pool water level and get things started until may as april in my part of canada while getting warmer, can still bring an occasional blast of cold (sub zero celcius) and snow.

i tried that last year (starting the pump and cleanup in april) got a scare when in late april it dipped to -12 celcius. i called the pool store with a shaky hand and they advised simply running my pump 24/7 until it warmed up.

so, i'm getting a leaf cover to reduce drastically the amount of crap in my pool in spring..i will still do the cleanup in may, but hopefully, less time require cleaning up and shocking will move up my pool use date by a week anyway. (it took about 2 full weeks to get it all going this year so it was swimmable)

[Mom2Czars]

I have a DE filter. I removed the insides and cleaned it out. It's in my sunroom right now, nice and dry. I'm planning to finish up with the job this weekend, moving the pump and filter to the basement, cleaning out the hoses, etc. I've checked the CL level once since putting the cover on, and it's at 13. I think I'll just keep an eye on it once a week until we get freezing weather. I can always throw in some bleach if needed as we're getting close to the truly cold weather. I have some but not all the clips on. I figured I'd let the whole thing settle a bit before solidifying it. I think I'll tie some water-filled bleach bottles loosely to the cover too, so that when the clips pop off, the cover won't fly off.

On reflection (and from reading the sticky posts above), I wish I'd have just put the cover on after vacuuming and removing the stairs, but left the pump/filter operational for a while longer.

The leak in my connection from the pump to the filter made that a problem though. I was losing enough water that I'd have to top it off at least once a week just to keep the level up enough to be able to vacuum, etc. I'm going to have to break the whole thing down in the basement and reconnect it.

[cvoytek]

I had a pool company close for me last year (my first year) and they added a TON of bleach (6 big jugs of 12% if I remember right) and one quart of Algecide. Since I am doing it myself this year:

A good cleaning and vacuuming, taking pump apart and putting it in basement, taking the quick connects off covering the skimmer with aquadoor and the return with the screw in plug, covering etc.

Can I just do what they did but not go so crazy with the bleach (IE add 1 quart polyquat and about 6-8 5.25 gallons of bleach)? I think this would put me at about 15-20 ppm CL instead of the 30-50 I estmated they put me at.

I have a 14k gallon above ground. My cover showed no distress from the tremendous amount of bleach they put in last fall and my water was crystal clear when I opened it up in the spring.