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The Pool Envy® Podcast goes beyond surface-level swimming pool advice to examine the standards, systems, evidence, and professional judgment behind pool construction, safety, operation, and failure.
Hosted by Jason Davies, a licensed swimming pool contractor and independent consultant, the show explores pool code compliance, construction defects, inspections, workmanship, water chemistry, equipment, litigation consulting, and expert-witness issues through real-world observations and practical explanations.
Created for pool professionals, homeowners, property owners, attorneys, and anyone who wants to understand not only what happens in a swimming pool—but why—each episode helps listeners ask better questions, recognize meaningful evidence, and distinguish confidence from informed judgment.
Pool Envy® — Standards, not suggestions.
From the job site to the code book, this is a Pool Envy Podcast where licensed pool professionals speak up. Code, compliance, craftsmanship. Hosted by Jason Davies. Licensed across Wisconsin, Florida, and Texas. Your deep end starts now.
Jason Davies:Every fall. Right about this time, the leaves start coming down here in Wisconsin and across the Midwest, the same questions start to show. My pool company says I need to shock the pool every month all winter. Is that right? Do I really need to blow out the lines?
Jason Davies:Why is there a plastic thing in my skimmer? I lowered the water. Isn't that enough? My pool has a cover on it. Doesn't that mean it's winterized?
Jason Davies:And then there's one question I've gotten more than once by email. We just bought this house a week ago. There's a pool in the backyard. It's already covered. We have absolutely no idea what anybody did.
Jason Davies:That one is always fun. And then we have our friends farther south, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, The Carolinas. You're probably thinking, this is a Wisconsin problem. I don't close my pool. Stick around because eventually, somebody gets an ice storm.
Jason Davies:The electricity goes out, the pump stops, and suddenly everybody wants to know where the drain plugs are. So today, we're gonna talk about winterizing a swimming pool, but I don't wanna give you another boring winterization checklist. I wanna talk about the why we do this stuff. We're gonna go through the water, the chemistry, the water level, and cover, the plumbing and equipment, and finally, what happens when winter catches you before you're ready. Because once you understand what the water's going to do, most winterization starts making a lot more sense.
Jason Davies:Number one, winterize early. Don't wait until your weather app says it's going to be 19 degrees tomorrow night and suddenly decide, you know what? Maybe I should figure out that swimming pool. That's not winterization. That's an emergency response.
Jason Davies:By then, every pool company in Wisconsin is busy. The part you suddenly need is inevitably the part nobody has. The valve that worked perfectly fine all summer long suddenly decides it doesn't wanna seal. And now you're learning how the heater drains while the temperature is actively falling. Plan ahead.
Jason Davies:That doesn't mean closing ridiculously early while the pool is still warm. It means giving yourself enough margin that the first freeze is also not your deadline. Number two, every pool is different. Different plumbing, different elevations, different equipment, different filters, different heaters, different valves, different covers, different attached spas, different water features, different sanitizing systems, different finishes, different groundwater conditions, different construction, different history. So despite what somebody confidently posts on Facebook, there is no simple procedure that applies perfectly to every swimming pool.
Jason Davies:This episode is educational. I want you to understand why these things matter. But if you don't understand the plumbing or equipment on your particular pool, talk with a qualified pool professional who can actually look at the system in front of them. Because this is what I do to mine is not the same statement as this is what should be done to yours. And one other qualifier.
Jason Davies:Today, we're talking primarily about in ground pools. Above ground pools deal with the same water and the same laws of physics, but some of the actual closing procedures are different. Let's start with the easy one. Clean the pool. Brush it, vacuum it, empty the baskets, get the leaves out, get the dirt out, get the organic material out.
Jason Davies:Because if you don't put your pool away clean, congratulations. You just made swimming pool tea. Think about it. Leaves, water, time. We're steeping.
Jason Davies:Steep. And if you own a white coffee mug, you already know what happens when tea sits in it. It doesn't stay perfectly white. Now make the mug 20,000 gallons. Leaves break down, organic material decomposes, tannins are released, dirt sits against surfaces, and then spring comes and everybody is shocked that something is discolored or stained.
Jason Davies:What exactly did we expect? We put leaves in water, covered everything up, and let it sit there for months. We made tea. Put the pool away clean. Saving $50 today is not worth turning spring into a 4 figure cleanup.
Jason Davies:And here in Wisconsin and across the Midwest, pools can stay closed for a long time, six months, seven months, sometimes eight, and still open beautifully. A swimming pool does not automatically become a swamp because nobody swam in it all winter. A good spring opening starts with a good fall closing. And while you're cleaning things, don't forget the filter. Backwash when appropriate.
Jason Davies:Clean the cartridges. Clean the DE grids if you have them. Don't carefully clean 20,000 gallons of water and then put six months of summer inside the filter away for winter. That isn't storage, that's fermentation. Now let's talk about the water because that is where we get one of my favorite pieces of advice.
Jason Davies:Shock it once a month all winter. Okay. Why? What did the test say? What is the sanitizer residual?
Jason Davies:What is the water temperature? What is the CYA? What chlorine product are we using? What kind of pool surface do we have? What kind of cover is over it?
Jason Davies:Is anything circulating? What exactly are we trying to accomplish? If nobody can answer those questions and the explanation is simply, well, another month passed, that isn't water chemistry. That's a calendar. Before we even get to chlorine though, we need to talk about balance.
Jason Davies:Because the chemistry you put the pool away with should not merely be good for the water sitting in front of you today. It should anticipate where that water is going. Temperature matters. Temperature is part of the Langoliere saturation index, also known as LSI. As water gets colder, its saturation balance changes.
Jason Davies:So if the water is beautifully balanced when you close at 60 degrees, I also wanna know what that same water looks like when it approaches 32 degrees. Here in Wisconsin, 32 isn't theoretical. Run the cold temperature through the calculation. Where's the water going? Because a pool that looks perfectly comfortable on closing day can become much more aggressive when the temperature falls.
Jason Davies:That's the entire idea. Winter chemistry is predictive chemistry. We're forecasting, and calcium matters. We all know this. Not enough calcium leads to weak bones and teeth.
Jason Davies:I mean, finishes. A plaster or other cementitious pool finish contains calcium. If the water becomes sufficiently undersaturated and aggressive, the water can start looking for calcium somewhere else, and I do not want somewhere else to be the wall of your swimming pool. So calcium hardness matters. PH matters.
Jason Davies:Alkalinity matters. Temperature matters, and all those things work together. This is why I don't want to simply look at individual numbers and ask, are they inside the little acceptable boxes? I want to know what the water as a system is going to do when it gets cold. Now somebody with a vinyl liner is saying, wonderful plaster problem.
Jason Davies:Moving on. Nope. You still own water, and water chemistry still matters. Vinyl liners do not particularly enjoy very acidic or chronically aggressive conditions either. Pool chemistry can contribute to a vinyl changing dimension, swelling, or wrinkling, and then you get those gnarly bumps in the liner, which really ruins the fun.
Jason Davies:So no. Plaster people do not own water chemistry while vinyl liner people throw a tarp over the pool and walk away. The consequences may be different. The chemistry still matters. And another number of people seem to mentally erase at closing is cyanuric acid, CYA.
Jason Davies:If CYA is in the water when you close the pool, don't forget that it's in there. Winter is not witness protection. Your CYA didn't get a new name and a new life under the cover. If you spent the swimming season using stabilized chlorine products, know where that CYA ended up before blindly adding more stabilized products. The cover does not reset the chemistry.
Jason Davies:Calcium is still there. Alkalinity, still there. CYA is still there. Metals, if present, are still there. Know what you actually have.
Jason Davies:Now let's come back to that monthly shock. Cold water changes the entire environment. Biological activity slows. Algae growth slows. Chlorine demand generally drops dramatically compared with summer.
Jason Davies:This is not your July swimming pool. There's no 85 degree water. No six people swimming. No sunscreen. No body oils.
Jason Davies:No July sunlight beating on the water all afternoon. And hopefully, because you listened to the first ten minutes of this episode, there aren't three bushels of leaves in there either. That does not mean chlorine magically becomes useless because the water is cold. It means the demand is different. So if somebody says dump a huge dose of shock in every month, I'm going to ask, based on what test?
Jason Davies:And if the circulation system is about to be shut down, think about distribution before you shut it down. Make the appropriate closing chemical adjustments while you can still circulate the water. Follow the product label. Give those products the mixing time they actually require. Don't pour a chemical cocktail into stagnant water five minutes after you shut the pump off and assume the chemistry fairy is going to distribute it evenly.
Jason Davies:And vinyl people in particular. Concentrated oxidizer sitting against a liner is not something we want. Plaster owners don't get a free pass either. More chemical is not automatically more protection. Test.
Jason Davies:Dose appropriately, circulate appropriately, then close. Depending upon the pool and how it is being closed, an appropriate winter algaecide may have a role. It's another tool. It's not a substitute for chlorine. It's not a substitute for cleaning, and it's not a substitute for balanced water, and know what you're adding.
Jason Davies:Some algaecides contain copper. Copper is a metal, and what we don't want to spend spring doing, removing stains, which takes us nicely into sequestrants. If you know you have iron, copper, or other stain producing metals in the water, a sequestrant may be appropriate. A sequestrant does not magically remove metals. It helps keep dissolved metals tied up in the water so they are less likely to come out of solution and decide your steps, liner, or pool finish would be a lovely place to live.
Jason Davies:Once the metal deposits on the surface, we have a different problem. Know what is in the water before you put the water away. Do you partially lower your pool before winter? A lot of us do here in Wisconsin and across the Midwest because rain happens. Snow happens.
Jason Davies:Snow melts. And depending on the type of cover, some of that precipitation may end up inside the swimming pool. And here's the part people miss. That is dilution. If you lower the pool and then spend months collecting rain and snow melt through a mesh safety cover, the chemistry you have in February is not necessarily the chemistry you measured when you closed it.
Jason Davies:You're adding water. Calcium can be diluted. Alkalinity can be diluted. CYA can be diluted. Sanitizer residual changes.
Jason Davies:And at the same time, the water is getting colder. So the temperature is changing while dilution may also be changing the chemistry. Again, forecast. Don't merely treat water you see today. Think about the water you're going to have months from now, and notice I said mesh safety cover.
Jason Davies:Not every cover lets precipitation into the pool. Solid safety covers exist too. Some solid covers incorporate drainage. Others collect water on top and require that water to be removed appropriately. So the type of cover changes the winter.
Jason Davies:So far, we've done three things. We've cleaned the pool before covering it. We balance the water for the cold conditions it's going to experience, and then we thought about what rain and snow are going to do over the winter. And that's the theme. We're planning for what happens while nobody is swimming.
Jason Davies:Now let's talk about where we actually leave the water. Depending upon the pool and cover system, we may lower the water before winter. Part of that is controlling where water sits through repeated freeze thaw cycles. We don't necessarily want water sitting unnecessarily high against vulnerable tile and coping assemblies. Remember the reoccurring science lesson.
Jason Davies:Water freezes, water expands. If moisture gets behind poorly bonded, cracked, improperly detailed, or otherwise compromised tile, and then it freezes, that expansion can push already vulnerable material away from the wall. Winter is very good at finding bad tile work. Sometimes winter didn't create the original problem. It just found it.
Jason Davies:So controlling the winter water level can help keep water away from places where we don't want repeated saturation and freezing. But do not hear Jason said lower the water and decide, wonderful. Let's drain it. No. Don't do that.
Jason Davies:An in ground pool generally needs water in it. Fully or improperly draining an in ground pool can create its own serious problems, including damage associated with groundwater and hydrostatic forces. Vinyl liners can also move, shrink, or wrinkle when their supporting water is removed. Fiberglass shells have their own concerns as well. If somebody believes an inground pool actually needs to be emptied, that is a professional conversation.
Jason Davies:This is not, I watched a twelve minute video, found a pump at a local hardware store, and we're going for it. Lower the water as appropriate for the pool and the cover system. Do not arbitrarily drain it. Now, let's talk about the thing sitting above that water. A winter debris cover and a safety cover are not automatically the same thing.
Jason Davies:A tarp held down with water bags can do a perfectly reasonable job keeping leaves and debris out. That does not make it fall protection. It does not magically become a safety cover because somebody posted a photograph on Facebook of their golden retriever standing on it. It does not become a safety cover because uncle Bob walked across it once in 1997, and mine held me is not a certification test. The recognized performance standard here is ASTM f one three four six.
Jason Davies:There are mesh safety covers. There are solid safety covers. What matters is whether the cover is actually designed, labeled, installed, and maintained for that safety function, and ASTM's labeling provisions matter here too. Covers are supposed to carry safety information, and covers that do not satisfy the safety cover requirements have specific warning treatment. So here's the homeowner version.
Jason Davies:Read the label. Know what you own, and if you cannot verify your cover is actually intended and rated as a safety cover, don't treat it like one. And even with a legitimate safety cover, don't play on it. Don't use it as a trampoline. Don't encourage children or pets to walk on it.
Jason Davies:Safety cover means another layer of protection. It does not mean playground, and it does not replace whatever barriers, fencing, or other protections your local requirements call for. Remember what we're doing here. We're leaving a body of water largely unattended for months. We want to minimize risk.
Jason Davies:Another reason we don't randomly decide how far to lower the swimming pool, the cover manufacturer may specify a winter water level range. Follow it. That's more useful than somebody on Facebook telling you, I always go 18 inches. The manufacturer knows how that particular cover is designed to perform. Some cover systems rely on water beneath the cover being maintained within a prescribed range during snow season.
Jason Davies:And if you have a traditional winter tarp with water bags, those bags have instructions too. For example, water tube manufacturers may tell you not to completely fill them in severe cold. Why? We're back to the same science lesson. Water freezes.
Jason Davies:Water expands. There's apparently no escaping that topic today. Give the ice expansion room rather than turning a completely full tube of water into another sealed frozen container. Follow the instructions for the thing you actually own. This is where we can redirect some of the goad shock because it's January energy into something useful.
Jason Davies:Check the cover. Look at the cover. Are the anchors secure? Did something shift? Is there a tear?
Jason Davies:Has a branch fallen? Is debris collecting? If it's a solid cover, is standing water being managed according to the cover instructions? What is the pool water level doing? Did rain or snow melt raise it?
Jason Davies:Did somebody lower it unexpectedly? If the cover is being used as a safety cover, is it still in condition to perform that job? A Wisconsin pool may stay closed six, seven, or even eight months straight. That does not mean nobody should look at it for eight months. It means our winter attention should be directed towards actual conditions, not invented chemical chores because another thirty days has passed.
Jason Davies:Why do we blow out swimming pool lines? Because water is wet in summer, and water is ice when it freezes. Most pool owners are pretty smart. I'm talking to you. You're still there.
Jason Davies:Right? Good. We all survived enough high school science to know that water expands when it freezes. Inside a swimming pool, that's one thing. Inside a closed pipe, valve, pump housing, heater, filter, or fitting, that can get expensive.
Jason Davies:So we blow out the lines, Not because this mysterious ritual has passed from pool guy to pool guy every October. There's a physical reason. We are removing water from vulnerable plumbing so freezing water cannot create destructive pressure inside the system. And remember how circulation works. Water has to get from the swimming pool to the equipment, and then it has to come back.
Jason Davies:We have suction side plumbing, skimmers, main drains or suction outlets, dedicated suction lines, cleaner plumbing on some systems. Then we have the return side. Returns, spa jets, spillovers, water features, in floor systems. Whatever your particular pool has, winterizing three return fittings while forgetting the entire suction side does not winterize the plumbing. It is winterizing some of the plumbing.
Jason Davies:Ice does not award partial credit. Now suppose we blow a line clear. Are we finished? No. Because water finds low points.
Jason Davies:Gravity has been doing this considerably longer than the swimming pool industry, and it is quite good at its job. Any sag, any low fitting, any valve, any low section of plumbing. If water can migrate back into it, that's someplace water can collect. So once we get the water out, we need to keep the water out. That's why we plug things.
Jason Davies:That is why we cap things. That's why we isolate things. Winterization is not merely get the water out. It is get the water out and keep it out. And blowing up plumbing does not mean find the biggest air compressor you possibly can and see what happens.
Jason Davies:We are trying to move a volume of water. We are not trying to discover the burst pressure of 40 year old PVC. Pool equipment manufacturers may specify low pressure, high volume air for winterization. Heaters can have specific pressure limitations. Older systems may have fittings and repairs you know absolutely nothing about.
Jason Davies:Use equipment appropriate to the job and follow the instructions for the equipment connected to the plumbing. The goal is water removal, not destructive testing. Now somebody says, okay, genius. Are you swimming down to the bottom of the deep end and plugging the main drain? No, I'm not.
Jason Davies:This is where an airlock may come into play. We blow the line. Eventually, we see bubbles at the suction outlet in the bottom of the pool. Those bubbles tell us that air has displaced water through the line. While maintaining the air pressure, we close the valve and isolate the plumbing.
Jason Davies:Now we are trying to maintain that air column so that pool water doesn't simply refill the line. That is the airlock, and it works beautifully if the valve actually works. Because if that valve leaks, the airlock can be lost. Air gets out, water gets back in, and now we have potentially the water sitting in buried plumbing that everybody thought was protected. So when somebody tells you the pool company says this valve needs to be repaired before closing, are they just trying to sell me something?
Jason Davies:Maybe somebody somewhere is. But if that valve is the thing we're trusting to hold an airlock through a Wisconsin winter, I want that valve to seal. Well, it almost works. Isn't terribly reassuring in January. And what's that plastic thing in the skimmer?
Jason Davies:It isn't decorative. We don't want the skimmer becoming an ice cube tray. The skimmer can contain water. Water freezes. Water expands.
Jason Davies:The skimmer body is plastic. The plumbing is plastic. The surrounding structure does not politely move aside because the water decided to become ice. So depending upon the winterization system, skimmer plugs, expansion devices, or similar components may be used as part of the protection strategy. That inexpensive piece of plastic can look pretty attractive compared to cutting concrete, excavating around a swimming pool, and replacing a cracked skimmer.
Jason Davies:You can perform the most beautiful plumbing blowout ever witnessed and then leave the equipment full of water. Your pump can hold water. Your filter can hold water. Your heater can hold water. A chlorinator or feeder can hold water.
Jason Davies:A booster pump can hold water. Water features can hold water. Controller flow cells and chemistry sensors may have their own winterization requirements. And all that water has also taken high school science. Drain the equipment according to its manufacturer's instructions.
Jason Davies:Remove the appropriate drain plugs. Open air reliefs when required. Understand how the particular heater drains. Understand how that particular filter drains. Understand how the particular pump drains.
Jason Davies:If your multi port valve has a manufacturer provided winter position, follow its instructions. Salt systems vary, sensors vary, controllers vary. Don't invent universal procedures for equipment whose manufacturer already wrote one. And here's my highly technical storage recommendation. When you remove winter drain plugs, put them somewhere consistent.
Jason Davies:For a lot of systems, the pump basket is convenient. Future you will appreciate present you when future you is standing outside in April with a flashlight going, where in the world did I put the filter plug? Pool antifreeze exists. In an appropriate system, a nontoxic propylene glycol product installed for pool winterization may provide additional freeze protection where the procedure calls for it. But the important word there was pool, not automotive antifreeze.
Jason Davies:Do not pour automotive antifreeze into swimming pool plumbing. And don't take pool antifreeze sometimes has a role in winterized plumbing and turn it into poor antifreeze into the swimming pool. No. Use it only where the winterization method and product instructions call for it. It's not a substitute for properly clearing and protecting the plumbing.
Jason Davies:Before leaving the equipment pad, look around at the whole pool. Ladders, rails, pressure gauges, sensors, cleaner lines, booster pumps, water features, spa plumbing, spillovers, deck accessories, anything that holds water or can be damaged by freezing deserves a thought. A complicated backyard swimming pool might have considerably more to winterize than one skimmer, two returns, good night. This is why every pool is different. And somewhere during all of this, please put away the golden retriever.
Jason Davies:He still isn't an ASTM test. At this point, the pool is clean. The pool chemistry has been prepared for cold weather. The water level and cover have been considered together. The plumbing has been cleared and isolated, and the equipment has been drained according to what it actually is.
Jason Davies:Notice what winterization really comes down to. We are controlling where water is allowed to be and predicting what that water will do next. Now let's talk to the people who normally don't close pools at all, southern folks. Your turn. You may not perform a traditional Wisconsin pool closing.
Jason Davies:That makes perfect sense. Your swimming pool may operate all winter. You may have automation with freeze protection. And whenever cold weather comes, somebody says, just run the pump. Circulating water absolutely can reduce freeze risk.
Jason Davies:But what happens when the electricity goes out? What happens when the breaker trips? What happens when the pump fails? What happens when it loses its prime? What happens when the valve is in the wrong position?
Jason Davies:What happens when automation fails? What happens when the ice storm lasts considerably longer than anyone expected? That is the distinction between relying on freeze protection and actually winterizing equipment. Freeze protection depends on the system continuing to operate. Winterization protects components when they are not operating at all.
Jason Davies:Those are not the same thing. So I'm not telling everybody in Florida to perform a Wisconsin style October closing. I'm telling you to understand your system before the ice storm. Know where the breakers are. Know where the drain plugs are.
Jason Davies:Know how the pump drains. Know how the filter drains. Know how the heater drains. Know what the valves actually control. Because the middle of a power outage in 20 degree weather is an awful time to start searching.
Jason Davies:Where's the drain plug on my pool heater? What happens if the cold is already here? The electricity is gone. The pump stopped. Now we're not performing a beautiful plan closing.
Jason Davies:We are doing damage mitigation. First, shut the equipment off at the breaker so it cannot unexpectedly restart while you're working around it when utility power returns. Then where the manufacturer permits it and it can be done safely, think about trapped water. Open the appropriate drain plugs. Open the appropriate valves.
Jason Davies:Open the filter air relief. Drain the pump. Drain the filter. Drain the heater according to its instructions. Where an equipment manufacturer calls for removing or loosening an appropriate lid during freeze protection, follow that procedure.
Jason Davies:The concept is keep things open ended. Don't give expanding ice a nice sealed container to push against if you can safely avoid it. But let me be extremely clear. Do not walk up to a pressurized swimming pool filter and start loosening clamps. A filter is a pressure vessel.
Jason Davies:Power off, pressure relieved. Follow the equipment procedure. We are not randomly dismantling the pool pad because the weather app turned blue. We are trying to avoid trapped water. Once circulation is gone, the strategy changes.
Jason Davies:We can no longer depend on moving water for protection. Now we are trying to get vulnerable water out and avoid trapping whatever remains. And, yes, this is particularly important for people in climates that normally do not winterize pools. Here in Wisconsin, we know winter is coming. Your swimming pool might be perfectly happy Tuesday afternoon and sitting without electricity and freezing temperatures Tuesday night.
Jason Davies:You do not need to become a Midwest pool closing expert. You should know how your own pool equipment drains. Now back to that email. We just bought a house a week ago. The swimming pool is already covered.
Jason Davies:What do we do? Find out what was actually done. A cover does not prove a pool was winterized. You don't know whether the returns were cleared. You do not know whether the suction lines were protected.
Jason Davies:You do not know whether the main drain line was airlocked. You do not know whether the valves hold. You do not know whether the heater was drained. You don't know whether the filter was drained. You don't know whether the pump was drained.
Jason Davies:You don't know what the chemistry looked like. You don't know whether the pool was even clean when the cover went on. Maybe somebody performed a meticulous professional closing. Maybe somebody shut off the breaker, threw a tarp over the pool, and moved to Arizona. The cover doesn't tell you which.
Jason Davies:If you inherit a closed swimming pool and nobody can document what was done, have someone who understands the system evaluate it. And that brings us to something everybody can do better. Document the closing, take pictures, record the closing chemistry, record the water level, Note the lines that were cleared. Note the lines that were airlocked. Note the plugs.
Jason Davies:Note what equipment was drained. Note anything unusual. Now the homeowner knows. The technician opening it knows. And if the house gets sold in December, the new owners don't have to stare at a green cover wondering what mysteries are hiding underneath it.
Jason Davies:And yes, pool stores get a little bored in winter. That's okay. You do not need to keep them entertained by buying something every thirty days. Properly prepared pools in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest can stay closed for six, seven, sometimes eight months and still open clean. That doesn't mean we abandon them.
Jason Davies:Check the cover, check the water level, check for storm damage, respond when there is an actual reason to respond. But a successful winter does not require constantly doing more. It requires doing the right things before winter gets here. Put the pool away clean. Otherwise, you're making tea.
Jason Davies:Balance the water for where it's going, not merely where it is today. Remember that cold temperature matters. Remember calcium. Remember CYA. Remember metals.
Jason Davies:Remember dilution. Know what kind of cover you actually own. Get vulnerable water out of the plumbing and equipment and keep it out. Make sure the valves you're trusting actually work. And if you live somewhere that normally doesn't winterize pools, learn how your equipment drains before the ice storm and the power outage.
Jason Davies:That's really it. Winterization is not superstition. It isn't, my neighbor has done this for twenty years. It isn't, the pool store says another month passed, so add another bottle. And it definitely isn't.
Jason Davies:Somebody posted a picture on Facebook, so apparently this is engineering now. It's physics, it's chemistry, and mostly it's forecasting. Where's the water going? What will happen when it gets colder? What happens when it freezes?
Jason Davies:What happens when rain and snow enter the equation? What will the chemistry look like while nobody is watching? What equipment is depending on everything else working correctly? Put your pool away like you want it back because the easiest swimming pool to open in spring is the one somebody bothered to close correctly in fall. And if you didn't, well, I'll put the kettle on.
Jason Davies:Your swimming pool tea should be ready by April.
Spyder:This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not legal advice, and it is not site specific engineering, code, or safety determination. All field conditions should be evaluated in context. Thanks for listening to the Pool Envy Podcast, where licensed pool professionals speak up. Hosted by Jason Davies, licensed across Wisconsin, Florida, and Texas.
Spyder:For more insights, subscribe and join us next time.