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In these articles I have discussed the two methods of Winterising a Pool: Passive and Active. The choice of which on you choose is up to you; they are both effective but for different reasons. It’s your choice, depending on your preference for the work involved, and temperature during winter, type of system, and you health requirements.
WINTERISING (PASSIVE)
Crystal Pools and other cartridge filter installations
- Water level – you can do nothing. Water level does not need to be adjusted for the sake of winter treatment in a Crystal pool under normal circumstances. However, in the case where the water has not been changed for several years, I would recommend that, at some time during the winter you change at least 50 % of your water so you could drop the level say 30cm and let the winter rain refresh it. This water change is necessary to dilute the build up of Cyanuric acid (stabiliser). This is a substance, which is combined within the gallets (tabs) used in manual dosing. Its purpose is the hold the chlorine in the pool long enough to do its job against the Ultra violet rays burning off the Chlorine. During the course of a few days or a week (depending on bather load) the chlorine will have been spent, but the Cyanuric acid remains and builds up. The effect of too much Cyanuric acid in the pool means that you will begin to grow algae even though the chlorine count might be quite high. The reason is that the excess of Cyanuric acid is binding the chlorine so that it cannot do its job. The only remedy is the dilute the levels by changing water. This is a very costly treatment for a simple problem but its absolutely essential if your pool is dosed manually.
For those of you with automatic pool controllers, which use liquid chlorine, there is no Cyanuric used and therefore no dilution necessary.
- Freezing will not normal damage your pool but to be sure put some empty bidons in the water under the cover to provide some expansion relief. I recommend that you do no put any water treatment in to prevent icing. Nor is it necessary to put anything more than your normal winter cover over it to excluded leaves and debris. (unless of course you have chosen an alarm as your security device- see other threads).
This is the same treatment for people with salt electrolysers.
- Sanitisation.
Its important from the point of view of sanitisation that you do not start this procedure until the water temperature is at or below 10degressC as Algae will not multiply at that temperature. So now that the water is at the right temperature, First and foremost balance the pH and the Alkalinity using pH minus and Bicarbonate of soda so that the range is pH 7.2-7.6, and TAC 80-130ppm. Use the photometer Scuba + for the best result. Then Choc the pool. This means that you should raise the chlorine levels to a high point say between 5-10 ppm. You can do this with Chlor Choc or simply use Eau de Javel 9.6%. Us a 50% dilute solution to clean your skimmers and other fittings around the pool, letting it settle without water movement for about 30 minutes. That will really clean all of those places and bleach the plastic. Then pour the rest into the pool at a 20 % dilution taking care not to get any concentrate on the liner as it will cause a ‘burn’ (white bleached patch)
Clean the water line around the liner. I recommend Aqua clean as it’s a bio degradable product and will not add to the TDS (Total dissolved solids) but is still very effective against most liner stains (black and brown fungal deposits but not sun tan lotion). Using a scrubbing brush on a long handle, scrub the margelles with the pool water, at this time its super chlorinated and therefore good sanitisation media. Take care not to let the water you are using run back into the pool.
- Antialgae.
There are many winterising treatments on the market, I am not in favour of most of them as they add to TDS and cause terrible problems in chemical balance later on. Particularly those containing copper, (read the contents carefully) Benzene ammoniate , not great also. If the product you have purchased contains any of these elements then throw it away, as it will cause you far greater problems in the future than it cost to get another now. My personal preference is a Bio Anti-Algae which is not a poison but and enzyme which eats algae. Its not as straight forward as others, but worth the effort in my opinion but first you must let the chlorine levels go back to normal (1-2 ppm). Then take two satchels and dissolve in a bucket of warm water and introduce to the pool. This is ok to do later when the pool is dormant and water is not circulating and will be enough to inform any hardy algae who are not discouraged by cold water that this pool is not a place for them. Hence, using this regime, when you open your pool again in Spring, the water should not have suffered an increase in the TDS saturation.
Crystal Pool owners should then take out the Ladder by unscrewing the jubilee clips at the base clean the apparatus thoroughly including the filters dry them of and store in the garage for the winter. Likewise the pump. Then put a (clean) AFNOR approved winter/security cover in place and settle in for the long months till you can open up again.
If you do get a ‘greenie’ then contact us or look up the knowledge base on the Poolguy website for ideas on corrective measures.
PASSIVE WINTERISING WITH A SAND OR ZEL EAU FILTER AND SKIMMERS
As above
However you cannot take out your circulation equipment naturally, so you’ll need to block off and drain all of the Pipe work to prevent damage from any water inside freezing.
There are several ways of doing this, but the easiest is to discharge sufficient water so that the level is just below the lowest pipe hole (usually the return jet), which should be about 40 cm below the top of the pool. The Bottom drain will be still full of water but this is not a problem as it is underneath the pool and therefore insulated against dramatic temperature changes.
Another way of doing this if you don’t want to drain the water level is to block off all the pipe with expandable rubber bungs, and screw inserts called widgets for the skimmers. These prevent the pool water from entering the pipes when you have emptied them. Once they are all in place, close the valve for the bottom drain, and open all of the others and run the pump with the multivalve to waist until all the water is sucked out of the pipe work, this should only take a minute or two and watch that the pump is not under stress. If it appears to be sucking only air than turn it off. Usually the pump is housed in a structure, which should be sufficient to protect it from the frost, but if your pump and filter is in a fibreglass box outside then you should consider removing at least the pump for warmer storage.
In all cases though you should remove the drain plugs from the pump (usually two located at the bottom of the pump) and the filter to evacuate all the water, otherwise it will go rancid over the winter. Convention, with professional pool maintenance people suggests that the best place to store the screw bungs is in the basket of the prefilter of the pump to ensure that these are protected and not lost through the Winter as your system will not function without them.
If you have a Floating Security cover, then you are in the fortunate position but you should make sure that the cover is very clean with no debris or fungus between the Lambs. Then advance the cover and secure it using the tape at the roman end to ensure that the free end cannot be lifted at any time. If you have a barred cover or a security bash then, again make sure that it is clean before you put it on, and renew any of the bungies, which are strained or worn.
Once again I do NOT recommend using a commercial winterising fluid or anti-algae save the Bio antialgae which is not a poison but an enzyme. From a water quality stand point, you should preserve the purity of the water at all times, even in the winter.
If you have a JEP Control, or Chemigem pool controller and you wish to passively winterise then you will need to remove the probe from the screw housing and replace the white rubber boot over the sensors with a little fresh water inside (not full). The purpose of this is to keep the pH gel moist so that you get good readings when you replace it in Spring. Then wrap the whole sensor in several layers of bubble wrap for insulation.
If you have a solar array using any form of plastic tubing then you should drain the array well before the night begin to get to freezing otherwise the array will suffer damage very quickly. The only system which can work throughout the winter is the Navitron evacuated tube solar array or a heat pump but even they must be deactivated if the air temperature falls below zero.
ACTIVE WINTERIZING
This procedure is reserved for people with JEP Control/ Chemigem, other brands of pool controls, or in some cases for those who do not mind doing the ‘odd check’ throughout the winter months.
The principle is simple in that you keep up the sanitization regime as you would in summer, (you could drop the chlorine levels a bit as the pool is not in use to say 1ppm or 610millevolts ORP, but keep the pH at 7.2-7.4), however you just change the pump times on the clock to ensure that the water is circulating during the coldest part of the night throughout the winter months (say 15min every hour, from midnight till 6am). Make a note to check the drums of Javel and acid through the winter, say every month and change if necessary. If your doing it manually, you will need to test every month or so with a photometer Scuba+ and add pH minus or (diluted) javel as is necessary according to recommended levels.
You should clean your covers as mentioned before and ensure that all of the circulation equipment (skimmers etc) are white and clean, free of debris. If you have a floating security cover and a bash cover then it’s a good idea to add the two to prevent leaves from entering.
Using this method the pool water should never change from its clean and clear appearance.
SECURITY
NB. If you sole compliant security is an immersion alarm then you are obliged to leave your pool uncovered during this time.
If your bash is compliant with the AFNOR requirements on pool security then it should display somewhere the notation for Couvertures de sécurité et dispositifs d'accrochage (NF P90-308). If there is no lable then it is sure that the cover does not comply and you are liable if there is no other compliant security extant.
The best form of combination security and cover by far are the floating security covers because they do all the jobs in one piece of equipment and are easy to use and less of a struggle and the manual covers.
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