As winter approaches, and the urge to cozy up indoors beckons, don't forget about your above-ground pool's care. Ensuring its well-being during the dormant months isn't just about maintaining its shape for spring but also safeguarding your investment.
Remember, warranties don't extend to winter damage, making minimal winter care essential. Beyond winterizing, there's a 2 to 3-month period before deep winter sets in. Proper winterization shields your pool against ice and the elements, meaning you can rest easy through the winter, knowing you've taken the right steps.
Keep Excess Water Off Your Winter Cover
Water will accumulate on top of your winter cover throughout the season in the form of rain, ice, or snow. It is important to drain excess water off the cover as it builds up so the pressure is relieved. This will make your winter cover last longer and relieve stress from the pool structure.
Removing excess water will also extend the life of your Ice Equalizer pillow, which prevents a solid sheet of ice from forming across your pool. If ice continuously expands and contracts without an Ice Equalizer pillow, it can bend your pool wall and uprights or rip your skimmer out of place.
Keep Leaves From Piling Up
Closing your pool before the leaves fall means that the weight of Autumn cleanup will sit directly on your winter cover, adding extra stress to the structure. While Fall cleanup won’t involve vacuuming gunk out of your pool if you close early, it may involve some creative leaf removal to ensure this weight does not cause damage to your pool over the course of the season.
Leaf covers are a great back-saving option to make cleanup a breeze. It works as follows: You’ll set the leaf cover up on top of your winter cover when closing your pool for the season and then pull it off along with the debris that has collected on top.
This addition to your pool closure to-do list will undoubtedly help maintain the integrity of your winter cover.
Clean Off Any Snow Buildup
Snow certainly has the potential to cause disaster to your pool over time. Despite your best efforts, your pool cover will accumulate ice on top throughout the winter. Ice equalizer pillows and proper winterization will alleviate this as much as possible, but even the strongest winter covers may still not stand up to the deluge of snow and ice some regions are subject to.
Once the top layer of ice has frozen over on top of your cover, it becomes that much easier for snow to accumulate, adding weight to your cover. For this reason, it’s beneficial to remove some of this buildup from your cover during larger storms to protect your cover and relieve stress from your pool structure.
Use an Ice Equalizer Pillow to Prevent Ice Damage
Ice may look pretty, but it can cause all kinds of damage to our pools. There’s little we can do to alleviate the negative effects of ice damage to pools, which is why it’s important to take precautions.
Properly winterizing your above-ground pool with an Ice Equalizer pillow plays a huge part in preventing ice damage, and it must take place upon pool closing before the water freezes over. Setting up an Ice Equalizer pillow will prevent a solid sheet of ice from forming across your pool, giving the ice sheet room to expand and collapse without pushing against your pool wall.
Stay on the Lookout for a Rapidly Receding Water Level
Your pool is bound to experience some evaporation over the course of the winter, but if you start losing more water than can be explained by evaporation, it may signal a leak has occurred.
Letting the water drain too much can cause a catastrophic collapse of your pool or serious damage to your pool wall, so it is important you keep the pool topped up until the leak can be found and repaired in the springtime.
Lastly, Address Any Pool Buckling as a Matter of Urgency
If your pool is buckling, be sure to remove as much weight; snow, branches, and other debris, from the cover, for example. This may be a result of the weight of buildup on the cover pulling too tightly on the walls.
Importantly, ensure that no jugs are tied to the cover’s outer edge. Remember, your cover is meant to expand and relieve tension as needed, allowing any ice lying on top to drop with the water level as it evaporates over the winter months. However, if jugs are tied to the cover, it cannot expand as it is meant to, and the brunt of that weight is then put on the pool walls instead of being held up by the water below. This can cause buckling of the pool wall and uprights―a dreaded fate for any above-ground pool.
If you follow these guidelines, you’re essentially paving the way for a smoother pool reopening come spring. Should you seek guidance on winter pool closure or any other pool and spa matters, remember that our team at Namco stands ready to assist at all our locations. Your pool's care is our priority!
