Prevent frost damage to your swimming pool – 3 tips

Prevent frost damage to your pool with these 3 tips. A few days of freezing cold? Then you better take your precautions to prevent damage to the pool. With our 3 tips you can properly winterize your swimming pool.

Let the pool pump circulate continuously – TIP 1

Leave your pool circulation pump works continuously. After all, running water will freeze less quickly than stagnant water. In addition, it is usually +/- 9°C * underground. This ensures that the water warms up a little when it passes under the ground. There is also no freezing temperature in the technical room, so the swimming pool water will also “warm up” there.

Some swimming pool installations have frost protection. The circulation pump will automatically circulate continuously if the pool water temperature drops below 5°C. Even if a frost protection is present, this does not detract from the fact that it is best to check whether the pump is circulating. If this does not happen automatically, you can always set the pump to the “MANUAL” position on the control box, then it will also work continuously and circulate the swimming pool water.

Warm up with a heat exchanger, you can set the temperature to 5°C and the gas or oil boiler will heat up the pool water a little bit and thus help prevent it from freezing.

“Make sure that the circulation pump works continuously, because running water will freeze less quickly than stagnant water.”

* Source Geothermal – Wikipedia

READING TIP : 5 TIPS for wintering your swimming pool

Provide a frost-free technical room – TIP 2

The technical room is where the most expensive parts of your swimming pool are located. So make sure you have a FROST-FREE technical room. This can be done by isolating the technical room. If the pool techniques are in the basement or in the garage, i.e. in the home, the risk is minimal. If the techniques are in the pool house or garden house, the risk is of course greater.

You can use a small electric fire to ensure that the room does not drop below 5°C and thus prevent frost damage. The techniques themselves, especially the circulation pump, also produce a very small amount of heat. So a well-sealed, insulated room will normally remain frost-free.

INSTALLATION TIP : you can install an ICE GUARD frost protection to protect the filter installation

Ensuring a frost-free technical room can prevent a lot of damage and expensive repair costs. If your pump or sand filter freezes, you may also have water damage when defrosting. With a cracked filter or swimming pool pump, the water will splash around in the technical room with all the consequences that entails.

“After the frost damage, you could also have water damage due to the splashing water when defrosting”

Protect your outdoor pool techniques – TIP 3

Various swimming pool techniques have been installed outside, such as the roller shutter or the summer cover, the heat pump, solar collectors, the skimmers, etc. These swimming pool techniques must withstand the freezing cold. So make sure that they are properly closed, protected, no longer contain water or that you no longer use them during freezing.

Prevent frost damage to the heat pump

To prevent frost damage to the heat pump, you must disconnect and empty the heat pump. You do this by closing the By-PASS in the technical room. This ensures that the water no longer flows to the heat pump. Then don't forget to loosen the connections to the heat pump and drain the water from the pipes. If water remains in this, the pipe can freeze to pieces. Water can also remain in the heat pump. You can remove this from the pump by gently “tilting” it until all the water has disappeared from the pump.

Prevent frost damage to the roller shutter or summer cover

A It is best not to leave the summer cover on the water in frosty weather. It is best to store it and ensure that a protective cover is placed over it.

A roller shutter may have some ice on the top. Snow also sometimes remains on it. It is important that you do NOT use the roller shutter (open or closed) when there is ice and snow on it. The plastic will be very brittle due to the very cold temperature and this can cause it to break or be pressed. By operating the roller shutter when there is snow on it, you can also burn the roller shutter motor due to overload.

Can snow or ice damage the winter net?

The winter net is made in such a way that when snow or ice remains on it, it can "move along". A winter net is attached with elastics or springs. This ensures that the winter net can move and that no damage occurs if snow remains on it. When melting, the melt water seeps back into the pool. You can therefore leave the winter net over the swimming pool or on the roller shutter in frosty weather.

TIPS for wintering your swimming pool with a winter net and wintering product

How do I protect my solar collectors

For solar collectors such as the Blozoen solar collectors  it is important to drain the water from the collectors. So you have to disconnect the collectors. What is sometimes forgotten is the water in the supply and return pipe to the roof. If the by-pass is closed in the technical room, water sometimes remains in this piece of pipe, which causes frost damage when it freezes. So also empty the pipes to the collectors on the roof.

READING TIP : Swimming pool heating over the winter – all tips.

Place a tennis ball in the skimmer basket

A typical place where frost damage often occurs is in the skimmer. The best thing you can do to avoid this is place a tennis ball or eg a plastic bottle with some sand in the skimmer basket. This ensures that you don't get an ice lump that will burst your skimmer. This damage is also quite serious because you cannot simply change a skimmer.

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