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Outdoor swim season is about over for the year. Here are a few guidelines for maintaining your pool during the fall and winter in Central Texas. For more information, watch our fall pool care video here. Change your time clock settings. During the heat of the summer, you probably have been running your pump 24 hours a day. Now you can change your time clock to 6-8 hours per day. You will have to experiment a little to find the optimum setting to maintain water clarity and chemical levels in your pool. Keep brushing, vacuuming and treating. You won’t have to do this as often as you did during the summer, but you will have to continue to maintain your pool even if you aren’t using it. Avoid the temptation of letting leaves sit in the bottom of your pool. This can stain your plaster and promote algae growth. Backwash your filter (or clean cartridges) when the filter pressure is 8-10 psi above the just-backwashed pressure. If you have a cartridge filter, now is a good time to degrease and acid wash (in that order) the cartridge(s) to remove the summer’s accumulation of oils and calcium. A great tool for removing leaves from the bottom of your pool is the “leaf eater” which attaches to a garden hose. It has a large bag and won’t clog up your pump basket. Keep those baskets empty and maintain water levels. Check your skimmer and pump baskets frequently until the leaves have stopped dropping. Failure to do this will affect chemical levels, and your pump can run dry and cause potential overheating and damage. Watch the water level. When the water cools off, turn off your auto water fill for a week and see if the level drops. Evaporation is minimal at this time of year; if you are adding water frequently during the late fall and winter, you probably have a leak. Watch your chemistry. You still have to test and treat your water, but not as frequently. Free chlorine should be between0.5 ppm and 1.0 ppm. Check and adjust calcium hardness, stabilizer (cyanuric acid), total alkalinity and pH. We still have plenty of sun and hot days during the off season that can promote algae if you are not diligent. Do not put tablets in your skimmers. This will cause acidic, concentrated chlorine to go right into your equipment, potentially damaging your pump and heater. Use a good algae preventer now, and it should last most of the off season. Don’t let algae grow. It can be tempting not to worry about it when there are no swimmers, but it can cause you major headaches and expense later on. Order a freeze guard if you don’t already have one. Check to see if there is a freeze guard installed on your system. A freeze guard overrules the time clock and turns the pump on during a freeze, helping to prevent pipes and equipment from freezing. The freeze guard is either built into your time clock or is a stand-alone component. If you’re not sure whether your time clock has a freeze guard built in, call us with the time clock model number. The freeze guard will be near the timer if it is not part of the time clock. Call us if you need a freeze guard. This is not a DYI project. Be diligent about safety. Continue to check fences, gates, water alarms, etc. Remove toys, portable water slides, noodles and anything else that might attract children to the water. Even children who swim can drown in cold water. Renovate now! This is the best time of year to resurface your pool or perform other renovations. Stage 2 watering restrictions continue in Austin, but pools and spas are not affected except for fountains and water features. Emptying and refilling pools for renovation are allowed. If you need help preparing your pool for the cooler months, renovation, or leak detection and repair, call today at 512-873-8565. Joe Hines Hines Pool and Spa in Austin-TX-stands out from the competition with the promise of complete satisfaction to all of our customers. We offer cleaning, repairing, renovating and maintaining pools and spas in Central Texas so you can get the most out of your pool or spa. Visit our site at www.hinespool.com or call us at 512-873-8565 to schedule an initial consultation.
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