Closing the pool properly: what saves money come June

The season ends and the temptation is to cover it and forget about it. That forgetting is exactly why opening in June ends up costing three times as much.

The most expensive mistake

Emptying the pool. It seems the obvious thing to do and it is almost always a disaster: an empty shell suffers pressure from the surrounding ground, can crack, and the lining dries out and splits. Unless a technician says otherwise for a specific repair, a pool is wintered with water in it.

Closing it properly, in order

1. A thorough clean first of all: floor, walls, waterline and skimmers. The dirt you leave in there for eight months is the dirt that will cost money to remove in June.
2. Balance the water: correct pH and chlorination before wintering. Unbalanced water attacks the lining all winter long.
3. Winteriser product, which prevents algae and limescale deposits.
4. Lower the level below the skimmers and drain the pipework and the filtration unit. That is what stops a frost bursting a pipe.
5. A properly secured cover, which is also a safety measure, not just a cleanliness one.
6. Filter and pump: backwash, and protect the pump.

The paperwork, which also falls due now

September is the moment to review the maintenance contract before renewing it blindly, to collect the lifeguard's report if there was one, and to record in the minutes or the incident log whatever went wrong this summer. By June nobody remembers.

And one check worth not skipping

If something went wrong this season — a recurring fault, odd water consumption, a suspected leak — winter is the time to investigate it, with the pool out of use and no rush. Hunting a leak in July, with the pool full of people, costs far more and disrupts everyone.