Preparing Your Pool For Winter

The cool change is coming, and even if you’ve extended your swimming season by heating your pool, you will need to make sure you’re maintaining your pool through the coldest months so that when you go to get back in the water is clean and clear and swimmable straight away. There's a bit of maintenance involved over the wintertime, but it's well worth the reward of being able to dive right in when it warms up again.

Closing your pool – what you’ll need

Closing your pool for the winter will usually involve:

Adding a good algaecide. We do recommend Algon, or take a look at our range below.
Possibly a winteriser
Make sure you’ve got a leaf skimmer and pool leaf scoop

You’ll also want to adjust the hours you run your chlorinator and make sure you test the water monthly.

How much algaecide to add to the pool in winter?

One of the main questions we get from customers to do with algaecide is how much to put in? This will depend on a few things:

The size of your pool
What state it’s in when you first start using algaecide (try to make sure that there are no other major imbalances or issues)
How long you’re planning to winterise your pool for
General climate conditions and susceptibility to algae developing

Products including Algon Hotzone Algaecide and LoChlor Pool Algaecide are designed for 50,000 litre pools, and come in 1 litre bottles designed to last through a winter. Make sure you read the instructions carefully and adjust for different sized pools.

Winterising your pool could last for any length of time from 2-5 months, so depending on how long you choose to do it you may need 1-2 bottles of algaecide.

Speak to our staff to find out whether you have any other reasons to suspect algae might become a problem in your pool during the winter or other times of the year as different factors can have an impact on algae growth.

If preparing your pool for winter feels like a lot to organise and remember, it is. That’s why we’ve created a handy checklist that you can download and print off so that you don’t miss anything. Just print and check everything off. Also, make sure you add calendar reminders for monthly checks.

What should you do if you don't cover your pool during winter?

If you don't cover your pool during the winter months, you'll need to use a product like Miraclear blocks. These contain clarifiers to help keep the water clear as well as phosphate remover, which you might also need to use to winterise your pool. This does the job of adding the protection you need for your pool water and lasts around 30 days, so you'll need to add another block for each month you keep your pool closed.