How to Drain Water Out of Your Pool (FAST)

There are four ways to drain water out of your pool: with your filter waste port, your pump’s hose bib, a sump pump, or a garden hose. But the one that’s best for your pool depends on your filter system and how much water you need to drain.

Creators & Guests

Host

Matt Giovanisci

Founder of SwimUniversity.com

What is Pool School?

A podcast for pool owners covering pool maintenance and water chemistry.

Hey everyone, and welcome to Pool School by Swim University, where we help you keep your pool clean and clear all year.

My name is Matt, the founder of SwimUniversity.com. And on this episode, we’re talking about how to drain water out of your pool. Let’s dive in!

Real quick, if you want more help taking care of your pool, be sure to grab our free Pool Care Cheat Sheet at swimu.com/cheatsheet.

The first method, and one of the fastest ways to drain water out of your pool, is by using your filter’s waste port.

If you have a sand filter or a D.E. filter, you can connect a backwash hose to your filter’s waste port and use this to siphon water out of your pool.

Turn off your pump, connect a backwash hose to the waste port, set your filter to waste, and turn the pump back on. Water will start flowing from your pool, through the skimmers and pump, and out the backwash hose. Just be sure to watch out for the water level in your pool.

Once the water drops below the skimmer, your pump will start sucking in air. So this method only works for draining the few inches of water that’s at or above your skimmer line.

The next method is similar but doesn’t use your filter. Instead you’ll use your pump’s hose bib.

If you have an inground pool, you should see a hose bib built into the plumbing near your pool pump. To use this to drain water from your pool, shut off your pump, attach a garden hose to the hose bib, turn on your pump, and open the valve.

Like the backwash method, you’ll need to watch your water level so it doesn’t drop below the skimmer line. And this will take longer to drain since you’re using a smaller garden hose compared to a larger backwash hose.

But what if you need to remove more water from your pool or you don’t want to put any strain on your pump and filter? That’s where a sump pump comes in.

A submersible pump, a.k.a. a sump pump, is designed specifically to be used underwater. This will quickly remove pool water, including anything below the skimmer.

Simply connect a hose to the sump pump and place the pump at the bottom of your pool. Plug in the sump pump and it will start pulling water out of the pool through the hose. And some sump pumps will let you connect a larger backwash hose, which will help pump out the water even faster.

Finally, if you want gravity to do the work for you, use the garden hose siphon method.

This will take the longest to drain, but it’s the most hands-free. Simply submerge a garden hose underwater in your pool, making sure the entire hose fills with water.

Then keeping one end of a garden hose in the pool, place the other end down hill outside of your pool.

Now that you know how to drain your pool, where should all of that water drain to?

You’ll want to drain any pool water directly into one of your home’s sewer cleanouts, not into a storm drain. You can also direct the water into your yard, but that can damage your lawn if it’s full of chemicals or you’re dealing with a high volume of water.

Always check with your local municipality for any draining regulations.

Finally, here’s a quick warning about completely draining all the water out of your pool.

If you have an inground pool and you completely drain it, you run the risk of the entire pool popping out of place. Without the weight of the water pressing on it, the pool can get pushed up and out of the ground.

The risk is even higher if live in an area with a high water table or you drain your pool after several days of heavy rain.

And if you have an above ground pool and drain out all of the water, you run the risk of your walls collapsing.

So consider just partially draining your pool and replacing it with fresh water in batches. And if you do have to completely drain your pool, say to make repairs, it might be worth hiring a professional.

Remember, If you need more help with pool maintenance, grab our free Pool Care Cheat Sheet at swimu.com/cheatsheet.

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Your support will help more pool owners just like you, find this show. That’s it, thanks again, and happy swimming.