LEVANTE LIFESTYLE

REMINDERS! - WINTERIZING YOUR POOL

strong>By Alison Langdon

Some reminders for you as by now you should have already winterized your pool. If you haven’t, heed the warning!

In a standard sized pool you will have around seven bags of sand in the sand filter which will harbour all sorts of bacteria as well as algae. If this goes untreated throughout the winter months, it will all be pumped straight into your pool as soon as you start it up again. No end of backwashing will ever clear it. On top of this the pool water itself will become infected with all kinds of viruses and bacteria as well as the obvious algae.

Bacteria can be treated, but viruses are much more difficult to get rid of. Aside from this, after time you will develop black (or brown) algae. Once your pool has this it is very difficult to get rid of, and even after you are rid of the live algae it will still shows signs of it in the grout lines in the form of black or dark brown stains. The only real way to get rid of the stains following infestation is to scrub the joints with a stainless brush or scrape out the joints and re-grout ( for this option you will need to drain your pool).

You therefore have two options: winterize your pool or continue to use it as normal.

To winterize your pool properly you should use a long life algaecide such as “Clear and Clean”, which will provide you with cover for up to six months if dosed properly. Even after treatment with Clear and Clean you can still use your pool since it can be used all year round. This is a great substitute for a standard algaecide as it means you don’t have to worry about it for six months. You should then continue to run your pump and chlorinate as normal.

You should never just switch off the pool. However you can reduce your pool pump times a little as you are obviously not swimming in it, which in turn introduces bacteria to the water. However it is necessary to run the pump for at least 4-6 hours a day and keep the pool covered.

The other alternative is to use your pool and treat it as normal. I can hear you all saying now “I’m not swimming in that, it’s too cold!” It needn’t be though. There are now available on the market soft starting heat pumps which are extremely cheap to run and also relatively cheap to install; in fact cheaper than most solar systems are to install nowadays and certainly much cheaper than a traditional heating system. These run on a DC power system with an easy start so they draw very little power on start up and run very efficiently. This will cost a fraction of what the pool itself costs, but will give you available bathing time throughout the year rather than just a few weeks in the summer.