5 Winter Pool Care Tips for your Pool this Offseason

The winter season can see some pool owners making the mistake of neglecting their pool. Even though you won’t be using the pool for a few months, it’s important to ensure you still look after it – otherwise it could end up costing you a lot of time and money! The following tips are designed to ensure a successful and clean pool opening come summer.

1. Don’t Switch Your Pool Equipment off During Winter – Including your Solar Pool Heater

While switching your equipment off over winter may sound like a good way to save money on electricity and chemicals, it can have the opposite effect. Pool equipment is designed to be wet, therefore subjecting these components to long periods without water can damage them. Additionally, switching these systems off can also result in damage to the interior lining of your pool. This could result in a costly and time-consuming job to return the pool to a swim-ready state in time for summer.

Running the pool pump and filter for just 2-4 hours a day during winter will aid in distributing chlorine and filtering out the dirt and debris. If your solar pool heating system has a digital controller it should have a ‘Winter Mode’. This mode will switch the pump on for 3 minutes daily. This will help to keep the pool and equipment clean, healthy and functioning properly.

2. Get your Pool Water Tested

Even in the colder months when no one’s using the pool, it’s still important to ensure that the water and chemical levels remain balanced. Home test kits can be used to determine what you need to add to the pool – primarily chemicals to adjust the pH, alkalinity and calcium hardness levels. Your pools pH levels should be kept between 7.2 and 7.6 even during winter. You can also take a sample of your pool water to your local pool shop for testing and advice.

Allowing you pool to develop a high pH will promote algae to grow, so keeping it in check will help to stop your pool from turning green!

3. Clean the Pool, Equipment and Accessories

Before closing the pool down for winter ensure that you give it a good clean. You can do this yourself or hire a professional pool maintenance company to do it for you. Vacuum the whole pool and clean the filters, skimmer baskets and equipment. Failing to do this can leave you pool green or damage the exterior of your pool. Leaves, sticks and debris can stain your pool if left at the bottom of your pool for extended periods. Also remember to rinse and store pool accessories where appropriate.

4. Keep Your Pool Covered During Winter

Using a pool blanket during winter is an excellent way to keep leaves and debris out of the pool, which helps to minimise the amount of energy required to clean the pool. Pool covers also help to reduce the pool’s chemical consumption by 35% to 60% and can prevent 97% of natural evaporation.

If possible, we recommend maintaining the water level and ensuring the pumps remains on throughout winter.

5. Continue your Maintenance Schedule

After you have prepared you pool for winter, it is important that you follow your maintenance schedule. Even though the pool is not being used, going out and giving it a quick visual inspection once a week is imperative to ensure that the equipment is operating properly and is clear of debris. It is also important to check the pools water level and perform a pH test as required.

The team at Boss Pool Heating hope you enjoyed these tips and will find them useful. If you are looking to purchase, update or repair a solar pool heating system anywhere in Australia or are looking for some advice, the team at Boss Solar are ready to help you. We can help you find the pool heating system that best suits your needs. Give us a call on 1300 786 489