Every year in Michigan comes the sad time when you need to close your pool. To make this easier on yourself, get familiar with the essential products first so you have everything ready to go when it’s time to get that cover on.
What Chemicals Do I Need to Close a Pool?
At Zagers, we use BioGuard products. When you’re closing a pool, it’s important to remember to close your pool right. You’re not going to be using the pool for the next 4-6 months, so when you take the time to close the pool clean, balanced and clear, there’s a near-100% chance it’s going to open beautifully and clear. If you close it green, you’ll open it green. It’s a lot easier to open a clean pool than a green pool.
To close your pool, you need:
- Arctic Blue Winter Kit 12, which comes with a shock and algicide, covers 12,000 gallons (larger pools will need 2 kits).
- Pool Closing Complete, which uses corrosion inhibitors to prevent the water line ring around the inside of the pool.
Other chemicals to consider:
- Stow-Away to clean your solar cover. Lay the cover on the yard, spray on the Stow-Away, scrub and rinse it clean and get it ready for safe winter storage.
- Kleen It is for DE and cartridge filters. After disconnecting everything when closing the pool, use the Kleen It to get your filter clean and your filter cartridge.
- Off the Wall gets rid of an existing ring around the pool (again, make sure you use Pool Closing Complete to prevent those rings).
Other Products for Closing an Above Ground Pool
Cover Locs
Cover Locs are some of the best products available and definitely one of our favorites. They’re two-piece clip systems, one piece attaches to the outer edge of the pool and under the cover, the other piece goes over the cover, locking it in place. Cover Locs and come in a six-inch size and a full rail-length size.
For oval pools, the full-length Cover Locs are perfect for the straight sides, using one set of Cover Locs per top rail. With the six-inch Cover Locs, use three per top rail. Cover Locs are effective, durable, and last an extremely long time.
Water Tubes
There are two types of water tubes, but you’ll be using the single tube for your above-ground pool (double tubes are for in-ground pools). Fill each tube a little over half full, then lay them along the inside of your pool border. Tie them to your cable.
Air Pillow
The Pool Pillow Pal makes life extremely easy. After you fill the air pillow, you apply the Pool Pillow Pal to the air pillow and the underside of the pool cover, which holds the air pillow in place all winter, minimizing damage to your pool that can come with the water freezing.
Aquador and Return Plugs
For Doughboy pools, Aquadors are phenomenal products. For Sharkline pools, there’s a wide-mouth version. Both do the same thing. Snap the Aquador in place and it will do an excellent job all winter of preventing any water from leaking out.
For added security or for an Aquador that’s a few years old, use Lube Tube, which is a Teflon-based product, to get the Aquador in place.
The return is simple. With Doughboy pools, you simply unscrew the disc near the skimmer. With Sharkline pools, there’s an extra piece but essentially it’s the same process. Unscrew the return, insert the plug and you’re good to go.
Winter Covers
Winter covers are oversized by four feet, have eyelets around the entire outside edge and come with cable and ratchet. It’s aircraft cable, so it is reliable.
Always put the colored side up, with the black side down (facing the water). Pool covers are specifically designed to be effective in this way, so make sure you always put the colored side up.
Winter covers are very different from a standard tarp you could get from a hardware store, so it’s extremely important to get a properly sized pool cover designed to protect your pool.
With a pool cover oversized by four feet on all sides, make sure you put most of the excess in the pool rather than hanging off the outside. You don’t want to create any sort of a wind tunnel that could do damage. By putting the excess in the pool and using Cover Locs to keep the cover in place, your pool can withstand extremely strong winds.
Leaf Covers
You might think leaf covers are only for people with a lot of trees around, but they can actually benefit you even if you have no trees at all.
If you have a lot of trees, a leaf cover makes manual labor much, much easier. Simply put the leaf cover on the pool, wait for all the leaves to drop for the year, then yank the cover off. It’s light and, assuming you have a person or two to help, easy to remove and clean up.
If you don’t have any trees at all, you probably have a fair amount of wind, which is where the leaf cover can help as it does a great job of knocking wind down.
Closing the Pool
Now that you have everything you need, you can close your above ground pool.
If you have any questions about any of the products mentioned, don’t hesitate to contact us. Want us to close your pool for you? We can do that.