How To Winterize Your Inground Swimming Pool

[Music] hey guys my name is Jones and I'm here with JT and today we're gonna teach you how to winterize your swimming pool that's one of the most common questions that we get asked is how do I get ready for the winter so that my lines don't freeze now before we get started there's gonna be a couple things that you need to make sure that you have first you're going to need a shop back you're also going to need winterization plugs for your returns and also a gizmo for your skimmer we'll explain what a gizmo is a bit later in addition to that you'll need winterization chemicals and RV antifreeze it's important that you get RV antifreeze and not car antifreeze we'll go into that as well so what we're gonna do is lower the water level a little bit we're gonna blow the lines out we're gonna get this pool scrubbed down real nice and clean test the water chemistry so we can get ready for the winterization process let's do it alright so this is your typical winterization kit for treating a swimming pool and this one treats up to 30,000 gallons of water when you get it you'll notice there's a couple of things in here winter stain and scale control we've got your non chlorinating shock and then winterizing power this is also a pH buffer you can get this stuff on pool warehouse.com and when you're going to winterize your swimming pool you want to make sure to put this through your pump and filtration system so it cycles through your water for up to 24 hours before you go through with the entire winterization process alright guys so we've gone ahead and cleaned this pool the water is balanced and it is ready to go one of the first things you need to do after you've cleaned it is to drop the water four to six inches below the skimmer now we've gone ahead and done that you'll need a pump to do that just drop it in let it run for an hour to just make sure you pay attention and stop at about four to six inches below the water line you don't need to get it below the returns we're gonna put plugs in there to close those returns up tight alright so Jones clean the pool up real nice for us and got the water level drop down and what I'm gonna do is get the plugs out of the pump get the cap off of the filter make sure that our filters lever is in the backwash position so that remains open and then I'm going to open up the automatic chlorine feeder and make sure that we don't have any chlorine tablets in the chlorine feeder so on your pump you've got two plugs there's one right here in the front and then one on the side back where the impeller is once I take those out I'm going to open my lid and then a good place to store those for the winter is in the pump basket you'll see that in just a moment [Music] so now that I got the plugs out of the pump I'm going to make sure that our lever is in the backwash position so that it's open take this cap off the bottom and release that water as well [Music] so now that I've got my plugs out of my pump the sand filter lever in the backwash position the cap off draining all the water out of there and open up this automatic chlorine feeder and make sure I don't have any chlorine tabs in that and we've removed those so we're good and I'm also gonna make sure that all of my valves are in the open position that's very important and I've already done that so all of our valves are in the open position and we are ready to finish this thing up alright guys so we're about to go ahead and suck all the water out of the skimmer lines but before we do that I'm going to talk to you about a gizmo it's an interesting word for a very simple product it's called the deluxe skimmer winterization tube and we sell these at pool warehouse com it's very easy to use and you definitely want to get one for each skimmer that you have now the first thing you need to do is make sure you get the basket out of your skimmer now this is threaded for inch and a half or two inch plumbing so it really doesn't matter what size plumbing that you have ultimately you're gonna screw this down inside of the skimmer and it's gonna keep ice from expanding and cracking that skimmer so over the course of the winter water will get back inside of there as it gets colder that water will freeze turn into ice and it'll want to expand and bust your skimmer this will keep that from happening definitely consider getting one for each skimmer that you have and we'll show you how to use that in just a minute alright guys we've got our shop back over here and we're gonna go ahead and start sucking all that water out of the line now this fitting you can pick up at pool warehouse or at Home Depot it's just a little fitting that goes on the end of your hose now we're going to put that right down into that line pretty snugly now take your time you want to make sure that you get all the water that you possibly can out of that line so get go ahead and start doing that you'll feel the water kind of come through the line and you'll know when you're done all right so most of you at home that are winterizing your own pools you're gonna use a probably rubber plug that goes into your return lines I've got a little washer on the end inch and a half rubber in the middle and a wingnut on the front you're just gonna drop your water below the return lines plug that return line and then use that wing nut to tighten it down that rubber is going to expand in that return line not allowing any water in or out now what we did it's a little bit different we're gonna leave the water above the return lines so we went to our local hardware store picked up some inch-and-a-half PVC we've got these little ninety degree elbows on top and then an inch and a half cap so we're gonna take this and as you can see I've already put one in the pool I plugged it into the return line spun it around and around and around screwed it into that return line leaving this vertical so that it's facing up after I've done that I'm gonna take my shot back like Jones did earlier take the shot back I'm gonna stick it on the top of this inch and 1/2 PVC suck any water out that might be in that return line once it's nice and clear I'm gonna take my cap stick it on the top and we'll be ready for winter [Music] all right we've got our lines all blown out water sucked out of them so what we're going to do now is take this RV antifreeze and dump it down in our lines so we're going to use about a third of this gallon on each one of these return lines here the reason we're using the RV antifreeze is because it's completely safe it's non-toxic unlike the antifreeze that you put in your regular automobile so make sure it's very important that you get RV slash marine antifreeze [Music] all right we're gonna go ahead and thread this gizmo inside of there and what I really like about this gizmo is that it has no rings on it so there's no need for teflon tape you can get some really cheap ones online import models that don't have a rings on them this also acts as your funnel so it's got a cap that you can pull out that way you can dump your antifreeze right inside if you don't get one like this I just make sure that you teflon tape this really well the threads now let's go ahead and thread it in okay that's nice and snug in there now and we're gonna go ahead and dump some of that RV antifreeze down into that plug there we go all right if you missed the hole it's okay you definitely want to get a little bit of antifreeze or that RV antifreeze down inside the skimmer as well so dump a little bit extra in there just make sure that you get definitely at least half a container down into the skimmer and then leave some inside the skimmer as well okay guys we're done winterizing this swimming pool it really doesn't take that long at all so you don't have to hire someone to do this you can do it yourself just get the right tools and you're all set now make sure to remember if you have deck Jets or maybe a waterfall or a pool slide that requires water you'll want to winterize those items as well you definitely don't want any busted pipes this winter no that's a bad thing so again thank you so much for joining us for winterizing your swimming pool and again i'm JT and this is jones from pool warehouse com

Channel: Pool Warehouse

Views: 170,913

Rating: 4.6634302 out of 5

Keywords: gizzmo, skimmer, pool skimmer gizzmo, winterize, how to winterize your pool, how to winterize and inground pool, how to winterize and above ground pool, pool gizzmo, skimmer gizzmo, winterization gizzmo, winterization skimmer, winterize your pool, how do I winterize my pool

Id: uwDGkabSZac

Length: 9min 21sec (561 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 12 2018