Do You Have to Close Your Pool For the Winter?

As winter draws closer, pool owners everywhere are in the process of closing their pools for the season. If you’re one of them, you might be wondering: do you really need to do this each year? Does closing your pool actually do anything to affect its longevity?

The answer to both of these questions is unboutedly yes. Not closing your pool simply isn’t an option, and the four following potential consequences will show you why.

What Might Happen If You Don’t Close Your Pool

1. Broken Pipes
If you leave water in your pool’s pipes after the temperature drops, it will freeze inside them. Since water expands significantly when it freezes, there is a good chance that the pipes will then crack or even burst open. This can also damage more expensive components like your pool’s pump or filtration system.

Closing your pool involves draining the water out of these delicate parts, ensuring that they stay functional and in one piece until you can use them again the following spring.

2. Torn Lining
The pipes aren’t the only thing that can be damaged by ice in an unclosed pool. If the pool’s water isn’t slightly drained and covered, the ice forming on top can easily be disturbed. If that ice then gets scraped against your pool’s vinyl liner, it could tear it.

This is bad enough on its own, but on top of that, water will often seep through those new tears and freeze underneath them, making the tears bigger and potentially damaging the frame or foundation of your pool. This is a subtle but potentially very serious problem, but closing your pool properly will greatly reduce your chances of having to deal with it.

3. Debris Build-up
If you don’t close your pool using a proper cover, you won’t be able to keep dirt, twigs, leaves, and other contaminants out of the water. Your cleaners and filtration systems can’t work in frozen water, so this debris will only build up over time.

You won’t be able to keep everything out of your pool even with a pool cover on it, but the extra protection will help block the majority of these things; this will make it much easier to clean out the few items that do slip through when you open your pool again in the spring.

4. Algae Growth
Water that sits stagnant for long periods of time will always develop algae eventually. Leaving your pool open and untreated over the winter gives these organisms plenty of time to grow into an impressively-sized colony.

Shocking the water, draining some of its volume, and applying algaecide are important parts of the pool closing process that help to keep the stagnant water as algae-free as possible.

Heat is Not Enough

It’s important to note that all of these dangers still apply if your pool is heated. Pools start to encounter problems when the water inside them freezes. Unless you are spending thousands of dollars each month keeping your pool warm enough to stay in liquid form regardless of how cold it is outside, you will still need to close your pool properly to avoid these negative consequences.

Set Your Pool Up for a Long Life

Closing your pool is quick and easy to do, and it will help the pool last much longer – in other words, there is no reason not to do it. Invest in a sturdy cover and quality pool chemicals, then set aside a few hours on a weekend to get this task done. When springtime comes again, you’ll be happy you did.