What do you all use for protecting the filter, pump and pipes. I'm in Elkhart, Texas and I have them covered with moving blankets right now but I'm not sure that will suffice. I was thinking of using an electric blanket under a waterproof tarp. Thoughts and suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks!

oh no said:

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you don't just turn on the heater and leave the pump running for a week or two when it freezes?

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Just bought the house Friday and had to head back to our current house. This is all new to me. Contacting Discount pools to give me a hand. I have a sin in law 30 minutes away who will go do what needs to be done. We can't be there till next week.

Ogre09 said:

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I have an old school electro-mechanical timer on mine. I take off the OFF tab and let it run continuously. The pool is too big and warm to freeze solid, and the pipes are mostly underground, so no need to run a heater. If you lose power you probably want to drain it.

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Same

Thank you guys.

If you're super worried about it, a tarp or some plastic sheeting rigged loosely around it with a camp heater underneath will work. If you do that and keep it running you'll be more than fine.

Only thing I'd add is valves. If you have actuator valve controls to switch from say spa to pool or water feature, I've been warned that ice buildup could freeze the valve in position and not be able to move.
I caver my equipment if it looks like heavy freezing precip.

And after having a Generac installed last February, I feel comfortable if we lose power that my pool will keep running.

DOCAG79 said:

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And after having a Generac installed last February, I feel comfortable if we lose power that my pool will keep running.

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I would confirm that the pool circuit is on the generator panel and not excluded or the first thing to shed load when the generator is over-taxed. I'd go throw your primary to test the generator today or tomorrow and make sure everything your expecting to come up actually comes back up.

Seen this before where people bought a "whole home" generator and the installer failed to mention that they didn't include the pool in the equation.

I'll loosely cover the equipment and above ground pipes and let it go into freeze mode and do its thing. When we lost power a few years ago, I just drained the pumps, filter and heater, and kept a My Buddy heater under a hooch I built to keep the equipment and horizontal pipes heated. I ended up losing one pipe that I repaired myself.

I wish the horizontal pipes by the equipment had a little angle with a petcock valve to drain any remaining water out of them.

Newby pool owner question, I have a main pump and the booster pump for my Polaris as well. Sounds like I should run both pumps 24/7? I assume disconnecting the Polaris makes sense so it's not cleaning the pool 24/7?

I'm trying to figure out the same thing you are - my first major freeze with a pool. I know the primary pump always pushes water through the Polaris lines, so I'm hoping that's enough. I also heard it isn't good to run the booster pump with no cleaner attached. I think it needs the back pressure to not wreck the booster pump.

I'm thinking about running some heat tape on the exposed pipes and obviously let the primary pump run 24/7 (mine's variable). I'm really worried about ice bringing down transmission lines, though, so if we lose power for any appreciable amount of time...

FiTxAg04 said:

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I'm trying to figure out the same thing you are - my first major freeze with a pool. I know the primary pump always pushes water through the Polaris lines, so I'm hoping that's enough. I also heard it isn't good to run the booster pump with no cleaner attached. I think it needs the back pressure to not wreck the booster pump.

I'm thinking about running some heat tape on the exposed pipes and obviously let the primary pump run 24/7 (mine's variable). I'm really worried about ice bringing down transmission lines, though, so if we lose power for any appreciable amount of time...

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yep biggest risk to all of this is loss of power (early morning when asleep). I use moving blankets myself with tarp coverings and an inside the house loss of power alert so i can get immediately focused on draining pump etc.

I kept the pool running 24/7 but I also kept a plug in night light in the bedroom. I wake up occasionally every night anyways, so if I saw the night light off, I knew I needed to get up and start draining the filter and pump. And that's exactly what happened during that last winter freeze we had in Houston. My brother lived a few blocks over and went to do the same at his house.

Just don't put blankets on the actual pump, gets too hot and risk of fire.

Cover with tarps.
Run the pumps.
Monitor once in a while to make sure there are no issues.

Corps_Ag12 said:

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If you're not going to be there, I'd recommend draining it and putting pool noodles in the skimmers. It won't take long for the pipes to freeze above ground if you lose power and the wind is blowing.

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I am problem solving my way your suggestion being the least stressful.

I am thinking I might drain filter / pump on the front end (friday). Rather than wondering when / if the power goes out over the weekend.

Run the pump continuously, drain your autofill pressure regulator thing (looks the same a sprinkler system head does) if you have one.

For my booster pump, if there is water coming out of the pool jet where the polaris cleaner plugs into, I assume I don't need to run the booster pump sense water is circulating?

I run all the pumps that I have.
If I don't, then there is a chance one of them slows down enough to freeze.

Should I leave my Polaris cleaner plugged into the jet and running 24/7?

As long as water is moving through the system it'll be fine. It won't hurt to leave the Polaris plugged in and run the booster, but it's not necessary.

Like others I just run my pump on a low rpm setting 24 hours. During Uri, I covered all of my equipment with a tarp and ran a shop light underneath. Didn't have any issues but we also didn't lose power.

From what I'm seeing, this storm will be nothing like Uri and definitely won't last a week.

ya'll experts correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the way i've thought about it in the past:

basically: if you have a freeze protect setting, you're fine. the filter pump and polaris pump will turn on and off periodically when temps are low to keep from freezing up. if you don't have a freeze protect, change your programming schedule or put it in service mode and just leave the pump and polaris running until the freeze is over.

the problem becomes if you lose power for an extended period of time like many Texans did in the snomageddon of Feb 2021. In that case, when your power goes out, cut the breaker to your pool (so it doesn't kick back on randomly with everything drained), open the drain on the filter casing, pump, salt cell, any equipment above ground you can empty out. ...then hope for the best. I think you can consider throwing blankets or towels over the external equipment after it's shut off and drained, but not sure if it will do much. ...and I think many of the valves are made to break easily so the hope is a valve breaks first and can easily be replaced and no pipes will break.

oh no said:

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ya'll experts correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the way i've thought about it in the past:

basically: if you have a freeze protect setting, you're fine. the filter pump and polaris pump will turn on and off periodically when temps are low to keep from freezing up. if you don't have a freeze protect, change your programming schedule or put it in service mode and just leave the pump and polaris running until the freeze is over.

the problem becomes if you lose power for an extended period of time like many Texans did in the snomageddon of Feb 2021. In that case, when your power goes out, cut the breaker to your pool (so it doesn't kick back on randomly with everything drained), open the drain on the filter casing, pump, salt cell, any equipment above ground you can empty out. ...then hope for the best. I think you can consider throwing blankets or towels over the external equipment after it's shut off and drained, but not sure if it will do much. ...and I think many of the valves are made to break easily so the hope is a valve breaks first and can easily be replaced and no pipes will break.

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agree with the above - key point…refill pumps / filter when power comes back BEFORE turning breakers back on.

Thunder18 said:

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I have an old pool system no heater, no autofiller/auto drain. I just run both pumps 24/7 and cover with a tarp. Pipes are covered with insulating foam. I also fill a plastic water bottle about 1/3 with antifreeze. Glue and tape the cap back on and put that in my skimmer basket as shown in this video:

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Genius. I love the simple but great ideas.

It takes me less than 3 minutes to drain the filter, pump and salt cell on ours. I just do that and don't have to worry about anything. I also don't use up the electricity. This has worked through three big freezes including the 21 freeze in DFW.

I may be the minority but I just drain my equipment before it freezes, let dry, cover and let it ride out. No pipes burst and if ice forms in the pool I just break it up. Really didn't want pool stuff running for 7 straight days