Winterize the Waterfall?

[aylad]

Hi Terry,

I live near Shreveport, LA, so am in pretty much the same climate as you. I have IG 29K vinyl pool, and never close mine during the winter. Once the water temp gets below the 60-ish mark, I shock it to 25-30 ppm (I run a high CYA pool--my CYA stays around 80), then pretty much leave it alone except to run Polaris once a week or so if I have leaves in the bottom. I cut my pump run time back to about 2-3 hours daily (and some days I don't run it at all), and I run it overnight if the air temps are to get below 29 degrees or so. I find that I only have to add bleach about once every 1-2 weeks throughout the winter, and my pool is ready to go as soon as the water warms up enough to swim. The pressure gauge on your pump needs to either be taken inside or be replaced after the winter--the first time it gets wet and then freezes, it will no longer work. Other than disconnecting my slide and fountain, that's about all I do during the winter. I do have an alarm on it so that if my dog or kids fall in, I'll know it immediately.

I have no experience whatsoever with waterfalls, so I don't really know what to tell you there--if you can winterize just the waterfall part, then you might really want to consider not closing the rest of the pool--from reading all accounts, it's a LOT less work! But I'll leave that to someone who knows about it. Hope this helps!

Janet

[dawndenise]

Not to hijack this thread but I'm also leaving my pool open for this winter and I'm a first-time pool owner.

About that pressure gauge...I'm going to try putting one of those styrofoam faucet freeze protectors over the gauge, rigging up some bungee cords to keep it securely over the gauge to see if that will protect it for the winter. I'm not expecting to have to watch the pressure over the winter, but can always lift off the device if I need to.