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Taking care of your pool doesn't end when you put the cover on. Maintain your pool during the winter, and make next season's opening a lot easier.
Creators & Guests
What is Pool School?
A podcast for pool owners covering pool maintenance and water chemistry.
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, and I'm the founder of swimuniversity.com. And on this episode, we're talking about the 11 off season pool care tips. 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/ cheat sheet.
Matt Giovanisci:So unfortunately, pool maintenance doesn't end when the swimming season does. It's important to continue caring for your swimming pool during the winter months to ensure you have a successful and clean pool opening in the spring. So I put together a list of maintenance tips that every pool owner can use during the colder months. Alright? So these are 11 different off season pool care tips that you can employ.
Matt Giovanisci:If it's if you're listening to this as it's published, that's right now. But you can keep coming back to this every single year. So number 1 is add a sorry. Add a midwinter algaecide. If you wanna help prevent your, algae from growing in your pool during the winter, use an algaecide.
Matt Giovanisci:Now, algaecide or algae specifically does not actually grow in freezing temperatures. But in the case of maybe you have a couple of warm days after closing, I know, here in Colorado, we've had a handful of 65, 70 degree days in February. Yeah. Well, if it warms up enough, the water can get warm. And if you're in a, obviously, in a a climate where it it does get warm like that, you will have algae growing under the cover.
Matt Giovanisci:What you're doing is essentially creating an incubator for algae. So I recommend that you use an algaecide that stays in the water for a good length of time. So you can do this, right now if you wanted to, or, you know, in the middle of the winter if you're worried, or you can do this at the end of the season, which you can just add an algaecide directly to the water and you really don't have to circulate it. If you can circulate it, do it. But if you can't, that's okay too.
Matt Giovanisci:I recommend you don't even have to buy a winter pool algaecide, specifically like titled winter pool algaecide. You can buy an algaecide that's called algaecide 60 or algae 60. And this is a polyquat algaecide which is copper free, meaning that there is no copper, that it's not gonna kill algae. What it does, an algaecide prevents algae. In the in the same way that a pesticide doesn't kill bugs, it prevents them.
Matt Giovanisci:Alright? So it's a side. Got it? Alright. So that's your midwinter algaecide.
Matt Giovanisci:Do that. Number 2 is check your system to prevent freezing. So check your pool equipment if they're still outside, and make sure the water is draining from your pump, your pool heater, and your filter. That means make sure all the drain plugs on these parts have been removed. Because this allows any rainwater or snow or condensation build up to actually drain out.
Matt Giovanisci:You'll also wanna drain the water 4 to 6 inches below the pool skimmer if you don't use a pool skimmer door for winterization. Any access water that can enter these pool accessories can freeze. And if that happens, the pipes can crack or the skimmer itself, which is made of plastic, it can crack and that can cost serious money, especially if you have an in ground pool. Number 3 is keep your pool cover clean all winter long. So you should absolutely have a winter cover for your pool, but a dirty cover beats a dirty but safely covered pool beats a sparkling clean but uncovered pool anytime.
Matt Giovanisci:There is simply no better insurance for keeping toddlers and wildlife out of the pool if you have a safety cover. Now, if you have a tarp cover, it's not gonna really keep wildlife and toddlers out. Okay? They can still, get injured. It's happened to me and my family.
Matt Giovanisci:It can happen. If possible though, you wanna keep the water level where it's supposed to be and the pumps running if you keep your pool open all year long. Alright? Now, if leaves and sticks let's say you have your pool covered. If leaves and and it's winterized and the pump's not running, if leaves and sticks and other junk accumulate on top of the cover throughout the winter, you can end up with a nasty stew of stagnant water, which is a mess to remove, and some of it ends up in your pool when you try to remove the cover.
Matt Giovanisci:So there's a couple of ways you can fix this problem. 1, you can just obviously keep if you, you can keep your water high, your water level high. Now this only works, again, if you have a winter door or a winter cover over your skimmer. If you install something like that, then you can keep the water high which will keep the cover up. Okay?
Matt Giovanisci:And then and then not much will accumulate on top. If you don't have that, which most people don't, the the the water should be 4 to 6 inches below the skimmer at all times. So there your cover is gonna sag unless you have a safety cover. And even if you have a safety cover, it could still sag. Okay?
Matt Giovanisci:Now, a safety cover is like tarp, like trampoline style covers and every other cover is just a tarp, essentially. Now, this doesn't matter if you have an above ground or in ground pool, although we normally recommend it for above ground pools. But you can use an air pillow in the center of your pool, which is just a big giant pillow, essentially. I guess, like an air you know, filled with air, that sits on the pool water and then you put the cover over it. And what that does is it actually does 2 things.
Matt Giovanisci:1, it's an ice compensator. So as the ice in the water starts to freeze, instead of it expanding and pushing against the walls of your pool, it will push into the pillow. So it sort of absorbs that expansion. But it also makes it a little bit easier to remove, water and other debris off the cover because there you it it won't sink in the middle because that's where the pillow is. It'll go around the pillow.
Matt Giovanisci:So you'll have easier access to clean it off. Best thing you can do, honestly, is no matter what, if you have a tarp cover or if you have a safety cover, is to use a winter cover pump and pump as much water off the cover whenever you get any sort of precipitation, whether that's snow or rain. Okay? And if you live around a lot of trees, you wanna pump the water off first. Hopefully, you have a couple of dry days, you wait for it to dry, and then you can use a, I like to use an electric leaf blower or some type of leaf blower where you can blow the debris off the cover so it doesn't, you know, stay there.
Matt Giovanisci:And also, you could use a soft broom to kinda pull the debris off. But you gotta be careful about using any sort of, instrument on top of the pool cover because you could rip it. Now, something else that no one really talks about, and this is something that I've been dealing with for a very long time. If you have a tarp cover, right, and let's say you spend a lot of money on that cover, it's not a cheap tarp cover, right, you got the the the really nice one. If you did that and you keep water on top of it, you're essentially creating a ton of bird baths.
Matt Giovanisci:Okay? So it's like, okay, some birds in the yard, not a big deal. But those birds eat things when they're in that in standing in that water. So they they're when they land, right, their feet, their nails, or talons, I guess, will go into the cover creating all these little tiny holes. And then when they peck and eat, it'll also create tiny holes.
Matt Giovanisci:And all those little tiny holes, you basically just create a giant filter, and now everything can get into the pool. So you wanna keep the water and the debris off the cover as best as you can. Alright? Moving on to number 4, add chlorine to your pool to ensure clean opening. Now here's a few things that we recommend if you have a safety cover on your pool.
Matt Giovanisci:In the fall, you wanna make sure you add chlorine and algaecide for your pool over the winter. Don't add too much chlorine though because if the chlorine levels get too high over the winter, it can actually bleach your liner if you have a liner pool. If you have a concrete pool, you're probably okay, and even a fiberglass pool. As soon as the water thaws in the spring, pop open the corner of the cover and you can add liquid chlorine. And you wanna use a liquid chlorine that's fairly light.
Matt Giovanisci:About 1 to 2 gallons for an average in ground pool is probably all you need. And you could do this yourself or you can hire a professional to do it, but this is an important step. Now, when your pool is opened, vac on waste, and this removes all of the debris from the bottom of your pool. And if you try to vacuum the sediment from the bottom of your pool and it runs through your filter system, well, your filter system is not that strong and all that stuff's gonna come right back into your pool. So you gotta make sure that you're, you're you just vacuum and do all that stuff when you open.
Matt Giovanisci:Chlorine a few ways. You can add chlorine at the end of this or sorry. Yeah. At the end of the season, right before you close. You can add liquid chlorine.
Matt Giovanisci:You can just make sure that your chlorine's at around 3 to 5 parts per million, a little bit higher if you wanted to. I wouldn't go any I wouldn't go above 5 parts per million. If you have a saltwater pool, you know, just crank it up and then you can shut it down. As soon as you put a cover over it, you're not gonna have the UV light eating away at the chlorine. A lot of people, and I've seen this done a lot, is they'll actually and I don't recommend it, but I'll tell you about it anyway.
Matt Giovanisci:They add a a floating chlorine dispenser under the cover. Right? Now you're like, okay. That that kind of makes sense except, well, 1, if you have a vinyl liner pool and that floater ends up you know, because they usually pack this with chlorine. It's like a a ton of chlorine in a in a floating device that is slowly dissolving those chlorine tablets all all winter long and keeping algae at bay.
Matt Giovanisci:Now, that seems okay in a concrete pool, but if that if that floater ends up on your walls or getting, like, pushed up against your walls, you could end up with bleaching. And also, there's nowhere for it to really mix. So you're just like saturating chlorine in one area. So if anything, one of the things you can do, like, right before opening or if you think you're gonna have a couple warm days, similar to the algaecide thing, is you can just add liquid chlorine directly to the pool, and this should mix very quick. It's also not super high in chlorine.
Matt Giovanisci:It's not a super concentrated formula. It's like it's bleach, which is, you know, it's not it's like 6%, as opposed to, you know, liquid chlorine, which is around 12 to 15%. So it's it's it's strong, but it's not that strong. And I'm saying that like as if putting a chlorine puck, which is a 100%, or or using a cal hypo shock, which is like 70%, that's a really strong concentrated dose of chlorine. And if that sits on your even if even on a concrete pool, it can cause bleaching.
Matt Giovanisci:So you don't want that. Number 5 is to check your pool cover and make sure it's properly fitted. Pretty simple. Just go around your pool if you have a a safety cover or if you have a a cover with a winch, a cable and a winch. Just make sure that's all tight and you should be good to go.
Matt Giovanisci:Number 6 is pay attention to the weather because, again, you can have a couple of warm days like we're having or even warm I feel like we've had like a warm few weeks. You wanna look for heavy rains, snowfall, snow can be a big issue. Obviously, wind can knock all of the debris on your pool and you just wanna keep an eye on the on the weather and attend to your pool if you see a big weather event and you need to do anything, go out there and check it out. Number 7 is you can use an enzyme that breaks down nonliving organic contamination. So using an enzyme product during the, off season, even if you poured it through a mesh cover while the water is not frozen, so you can this is something that I would you could pour through the cover if you have a mesh cover.
Matt Giovanisci:I would not recommend pouring algaecide or chlorine through these covers, by the way. I would lift the cover up and then pour it through. But this enzyme product, what you can get there's winter there's winter ones. You can just look for pool enzymes in general. They actually help break down non living organic, material that makes its way into the pool during the winter.
Matt Giovanisci:And some of this contamination is like, bird droppings, pollen, and then leftover stuff from the from regular pool season. So an enzyme will help prevent the water line ring that can occur through the winter, which usually requires a lot of scrubbing when you open up in the spring. And if you do have any chlorine in the pool at that point, it will help the chlorine, kill those contaminants because it helps to chop the you know, they have these long chains of contaminants. The enzymes sort of like break it down, chop it up, and then it makes it, easier for the chlorine to actually kill. So number 8 is protect the water and open early.
Matt Giovanisci:So like I said, you wanna just protect the water. You wanna keep an eye on everything as everything's going. If your pool's open year round and you're running your pool, you still wanna keep an eye on things. And if you do close your pool, the best thing you can do to open up clear in the spring is to open up as early as possible and, honestly, to close as late as possible. So you don't want that And really why I say that and why I think it's important is because you really don't want to keep the cover on the pool when it's warm out.
Matt Giovanisci:Because again, you are creating an incubator for algae. That warm, dark environment is just gonna cause algae to bloom and it's gonna be, you know, I've I've opened up so many pools over over the years and most of them, if they don't, close late and open early end up with I mean, I've seen black water completely just overtaken with so much algae and debris and just it's just pure disgusting. Creature from the Black Lagoon is what we used to call it. And But, you know, I would say like most of the time it would be like green or even teal. Teal is not that big of a deal, although that is a little bit of algae.
Matt Giovanisci:But, yeah. Open early if you can. Clean your pool surfaces, that's number 9. So you gotta regularly clean your walls, your floors, and other pool surfaces, basically, to prevent the growth of algae, so you just keep it in suspension. And I would develop this habit of skimming and vacuuming and brushing away organic debris on a weekly basis during the off season if you don't have a cover on.
Matt Giovanisci:Number 10 is to remove debris from your pool equipment, Not just your cover, but also your equipment. So you wanna maintain cleanliness and ease of maintenance in the future and ensure that your skimmer baskets, your pump baskets, your, floor cleaner containers, your cleaner bags are all cleared out. Alright? If you have a robotic cleaner, you wanna make sure that that's always clear. And regularly emptying these areas will prevent debris build up and keep, both the water and the equipment in better condition.
Matt Giovanisci:And again, this applies mostly to people who keep the water open year round, meaning it's the the pump and filter are running, But it is off season. Right? It's not winterization, it's just like checking out of things. So, yeah. Still to do that.
Matt Giovanisci:And then, finally, is number 11, and we've kinda mentioned this already, but keep an eye on your pool water level. Ensure that your pool maintains the appropriate level of water to safeguard your pump and maintain pool priming. So the ideal water level for your pool is gonna be varied based on your style of pool. And in warmer areas without freezing temperatures, you wanna, you wanna keep your pool water filled nearly to the top. I mean, what we usually recommend is halfway up the skimmer box.
Matt Giovanisci:So if you're looking at your skimmer box, you want the water about exactly halfway. Conversely, in colder reasons, it should be, obviously, if it's if your pool is winterized, your water level should be 4 to 6 inches below the skimmer if you didn't use a skimmer plate during the winter. Alright? So, finally, just a few frequently asked questions we get asked about, during for for specifically winter maintenance. But again, do you need to add any chemicals in the pool during the winter?
Matt Giovanisci:You don't have to, but I recommend if you haven't done this already is adding algaecide at least an algaecide and maybe some enzymes. I don't necessarily think you need to do the chlorine, but algaecide and enzymes are super easy to add. They're not gonna bleach out your your pool walls or anything. They're pretty safe and it's just insurance policies. Okay?
Matt Giovanisci:Should you use chlorine tablets in the winter? So, I mean, again, yes, you can, but I recommend that honestly, you wanna and let if you have a vinyl liner pool, no, I would not recommend it. If you have a fiberglass pool, I would even stay away from it. But if you have a concrete pool, I've seen this work pretty well. So, yes, it keeps the chlorine level up in the winter time but honestly, it just feels like extra work so I don't think you really need to do that, especially if you close late and open early and you've added a polyquat algaecide to help prevent algae from growing and you have maybe enzymes in the water, that's pretty good, and it's also very affordable.
Matt Giovanisci:And then all and then on top of that, you know, if you are not getting warm days, then you're good to go. If you're up in, you know, in a colder climate, I think you're good to go. So that's pretty much it. Those are my 11 tips. And remember, if you need more help with pool maintenance, grab our free pool care cheat sheet at swimu.com/cheat sheet.
Matt Giovanisci:You found this episode helpful, subscribe for more pool subscribe for, to this podcast for more pool maintenance tips, on whatever podcasting app you use. And when you do, if you if you don't mind, please leave us a review. It helps more people, more pool owners just like you find this show. That's it. Thanks again and swimming.