As the winter months approach, you will more than likely start to use your pool less and less. Winterising your pool is a good way to reduce the amount of pool maintenance required over the winter months while you are not using your pool, and will keep it cleaner for when you wish to start using it again.
1. Clean
Begin by ensuring that the pool water is clean of debris – such as leaves, bugs etc.. Vacuum these items up, and use the hand held skimming basket to collect any surface debris.
2. Chemicals
A chemical treatment is a necessary part of winterising your pool. A mixture of winter chlorine and winter alkaliser will ensure that your pool stays cleaner for longer and is able to fight algae over the winter months.
3. Water
Once you have added the chemicals, the water level of the pool now needs to be reduced. Your pool pump should have a waste-out function where the pool cleaning system will not recycle water back into the pool water and flush out all the water through a waste pipe. Make sure you read the instructions on your filtration system properly prior to doing this. Remove the skimmer basket and cover. Open the drainage on your filtration system and empty it.
4. Cover
Be sure to cover your pool with its swimming pool blanket. A good way to ensure your cover works well over winter is to place some flotation devices in your pool (particularly in the middle). If you set this up well, once you have stretched the blanket over the pool and the flotation devices in the middle, the highest point will be in the middle of the pool and this will enable debris and rain to run off away from your pool during the winter.
Follow these simple steps and your pool will be sparkling clean and ready to use right after winter!
