When winter comes around, it’s the prepping of your pool, along with regular maintenance throughout, that is key to ensuring the quality and longevity of your pool and things that surround it.
Crystal Pools is here to deep dive into everything you need to do to prep your inground swimming pool for winter, plus care tips and things you should watch out for during the cooler months.
When Should You Winterise Your Pool For Winter?
Depending on your location in Sydney and how often you use your concrete pool, prepping your pool for winter will begin at different times for everyone. Some pools get sun all day long, others shaded. More and more people are using heating technology we recommend to drastically extend their swimming seasons. As we edge into the colder months you’ll perhaps notice your family using the pool less often than before and so decide you are ready to ‘close’ your inground swimming pool down for the winter.
Enjoying a hot spa in winter
While is doesn’t snow in Sydney, there’s nothing like that classic onsen, après ski experience of a hot spa in winter. Some Nordic countries swear by it. Many Crystal Pools owners report they still enjoy their pool and backyard on sunny winter days, using just the heated spa for taking a dip. Heating the entire pool all year is worthwhile for some homeowners too.
Keep in mind some Sydney pool owners choose to maintain their pool without winterising it. Mainly to keep it looking immaculate, without necessarily using it for swimming.
Steps To Preparing Your Pool For Winter
Pack Away Outdoor Furniture
Depending on your swimming pool placement and your outdoor dining area, packing away outdoor furniture is a great way to prolong its life, if you can. Although outdoor furniture can help to make your home feel like an oasis even when you’re not using it, prolonging its life by reducing exposure to UV light and weathering makes sense. Storing it undercover for winter ensures longevity and might prompt you to give it a good clean at either end of the pack-away process.
Trim Surroundings Plants And Landscaping
Ensure your surrounding plants and landscaping have either been trimmed or heavily cut back – but not so much as to inhibit their growth. It’s a great way to reduce the quantity of annoying leaves and debris falling in the pool, or on top of your pool cover if you’re using one.
Clean The Filter
Regardless of the size of your pool and its current filtration system, giving your inground swimming pool filter a clean to prep it for the winter is a great way to ensure clean operation and avoid staining from the tannins in gum leaves. If you’re unsure about how to clean your specific model of pool filter in preparation for winter, chat with us at Crystal Pools, we can help with detailed instructions. For some models a thorough backwash will suffice.
Use A Pool Cover
Using a pool cover during the cooler months of the year is practically essential for conserving heat but perhaps more importantly it also keeps the pool water a lot cleaner by avoiding unwanted debris and dust making its way in. Investing in a quality pool cover is worthwhile for its longevity. While a cheaper options do work, there’s a point where it’s a false economy as cheap ones typically won’t last more than a year or two. So you’ll find yourself buying a replacement cover relatively soon.
Clean The Pool Fence
While cleaning your pool fence might be considered part of regular pool maintenance, adding this to your pool shutdown routine is a logical. If you have a glass fence, spray the fence down with water and then use a soft towel with some mild detergent. Take care to avoid run-off into the pool or onto your coping or decking.
What You Can Do To Maintain Your Inground Swimming Pool During Winter
Once you’ve fully ‘prepared’ your pool for winter by following the steps below, you also need to ensure your inground swimming pool is maintained. It’s essential to understand that investing a little time now and then to keep your pool adequately maintained will prevent you from potentially paying for costly repairs in future.
Set Your Solar To Winter Mode
If you have a solar-heated inground swimming pool, set your solar to winter mode. A great option for heating your pool when in use, switching to this setting in the cooler months is a fantastic way to reduce your solar power use throughout the cooler months. It also preserves energy in autumn and spring when the sun is lower but ambient temperatures are high enough.
Shock The Pool
Shocking your pool is a great way to remove any unwanted bacteria or potential algae going into winter. Shocking your pool is the process of using a heavy treatment of chlorine. This treatment is distributed through the pool and should be rechecked two to three days after the process to make any further adjustments to pH if needed.
Clean Thoroughly And Remove Any Alge
Before you put that final pool cover on and shut down your inground swimming pool for the winter, give it a thorough physical clean. This step will be easier to perform if you have automated cleaning equipment installed. There are a few manual tools that you can use to help with this process, such as a cleaning brush (typically nylon) and pool skimmer. Wire brushes can be used for stubborn algae spots, being careful not to scrub too hard at your pool’s surface coating or tiles.
Getting your pool clean before covering it up will increase the likelihood the water stays crystal clear through winter with the minimum of fuss.
Keep A Cleaning Maintenance Schedule
In addition to our tips and tricks for preparing your inground swimming pool for winter, setting up a cleaning maintenance schedule is a good way to take the worry out of winter pool maintenance. While your winter cleaning schedule can be 70% less frequent than the warmer months, having a reminder set to check the state of your pool interior can avoid an algae overgrowth happening due to insufficient winter sanitisation, or anything else you might have missed. If your pool is not in view from the interior of your home this is an especially helpful practice to adopt.
Consider Infloor Pool Cleaning
If you are serious about keeping your inground pool clean year-round with the minimum effort possible, consider Infloor Pool Cleaning during the initial stages of your concrete pool construction. Infloor pool cleaning is deemed a luxury expense by some, essential equipment by others. As a certified provider of the Paramount PCC 2000, our team is equipped with all tools and expertise to install infloor cleaning.
While it is an investment in saving time, it’s also a great way to ensure your inground swimming pool stays clean throughout the year, all while minimising the active effort it takes to clean it!
Final Thoughts
Robotic cleaners are another way to reduce your maintenance time across the year and keep the pool in consistent top condition. That way preparing your pool for winter will require less effort. Establishing a cleaning routine is the surest way to stay on top of pool maintenance. Simple regular inspection is the number one factor for lowering the chance your pool might ‘get away from you’ – perhaps while you’re absent on holidays or locked inside due to a bout of bad weather.
We’re famous for building pools that last decades, not just years. For countless homeowners across this city, making the decision to install a concrete pool in Sydney proved a very good decision, on many fronts. A pool by definition is a large body of contained water so maintenance of your asset goes without saying. Just like your car, and perhaps more so than with your house, a regime of regular care will ensure your inground swimming pools’ longevity and lower the chance of damage to surfaces or equipment. Following the steps in this guide will help ensure you enjoy your pool for the decades to come. To discover more about Crystal Pools, find out more and learn how we can help create your dream pool.