Springtime brings warmer temperatures that make it perfect for swimming, and you’re ready to use your pool much more now than during the winter months. Since you don’t completely close your pool down in Melbourne or anywhere else in Victoria, it’s relatively easy to get it back in top shape and ready for swimmers. So how does pool winterising look in Victoria? We’ll walk you through everything you need to know about winter pool maintenance below.
Caring for Your Pool During Australia’s Winter Months
You’ll use the pool less as the weather gets colder, and you’ll perform your routine pool maintenance less as well. You never want to completely shut everything down or stop maintenance entirely because you’ll end up with dirty, stagnant, green, and unhealthy water that takes days to clean up with constant filtering. (article 2)
If you put a cover on and shut your pool down for months at a time each year to save on costs, you’ll spend much more money, time, and effort trying to bring it back to a healthy state in the spring. The cost will quickly overtake anything you made by saving energy.
Pool Winterising 101: Maintaining Your Pump
Your pump will be on and running constantly in the hot spring and summer months. But, during the winter months, the demand on your pool drops drastically. In turn, you’ll use fewer chemicals and less energy to keep it running, so you don’t need to run your filter or pump system 8-12 hours per day. You can reduce the pump run time to half or a third each day.
If you don’t have a self-cleaning pool then the second option is to put a cover on your pool to help keep debris out. Make sure your water stays at the usual levels because this ensures that your pump has enough water to circulate. If it doesn’t, you could accidentally damage it by allowing it to suck in debris. Also you need to reduce your salt chlorinator chlorine level as the sun cannot remove the chlorine that is made so you need to check the chlorine level every few weeks.
Pool Winterising 101: Maintaining Your Heating System
Does your pool come with a heating system installed? Maybe you have a solar heating unit that has a winter mode. All you have to do is turn it on when your usage drops, which will prevent the heating unit from running when the pool temperature starts to rise. It will flush every day for a few minutes instead of running round-the-clock, and it’ll keep just enough water running to keep everything operating smoothly. It’ll stop debris from building up and causing burnouts or breaks in your pipes and filter system in the spring.
Pool Winterising 101: Balancing Your Chemicals
The chemicals in your pool are something you have to keep in mind all year round, and you’ll have to put some effort into maintaining them during the winter. However, you can cut back on your normal testing routine since you’re not using the pool nearly as much as you do in the summer. For example, if during summer, you usually take a sample of your pool water to your local pool dealer and let them run highly precise tests every 30 days, you can most likely switch to every 60 days during winter. This will save you both time and money.
Since pool usage drops in the winter months and there isn’t nearly as much sun — and swimmers — you can switch to using a chemical testing kit or test strips once a week. This will tell you which chemicals you have to adjust to keep your water clean and clear.
General Winter Pool Maintenance Tips and Advice
The amount of work and diligence that you put into your pool over the winter months will vary depending on your location, the environment, and the type of pool you have. The one chemical that you’ll need no matter what is chlorine, and it should stay a specific level in your water. The good news is, it should be easier to maintain in the winter when you use your pool less.
During the winter months, your pool will most likely use a small fraction of the chlorine it needs during the summer months. It’s cloudy so the sun doesn’t burn it off nearly as quickly, and most swimmers avoid the pool due to the chilly weather. You can get away with adding less chlorine until spring comes around and you’re ready to open it back up again.
However, the winter months do bring a problem with rain. It’s generally much wetter during this time, and the influx of rain can quickly dilute your pool chemicals far too much. This is why it’s so important that you routinely test them so you can fix it before your water turns cloudy or green. Make it a point to test your water at least once every 30 days. You can bring your pool water sample to your local pool dealer once every 60 days for more accurate readings.
You want to focus on your chlorine and pH levels because these are by far the two most important factors that help keep your pool safe to swim in. They’re also relatively easy to unbalance. You want your pH and chlorine levels to be strong enough to effectively sanitise your entire pool system without being strong enough to cause damage or irritate your skin.
For Pool Winterising Questions, Contact Compass Pools Melbourne
It’s so easy to get overwhelmed the first time or the first few times you try to winterise your pool. You’ll have questions and concerns, and our friendly and professional staff can help. If you have questions about winterisation in general, heating or pump systems, or pool chemistry, contact Compass Pools Melbourne today.
I’ve always struggled with keeping my pool in good shape during the winter, but after reading this, I feel much more confident. The step-by-step guide makes it seem much more manageable.