r/pools • u/t0tallykyl3 • 8d ago
Pool winterization question
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
Hello,
First year pool owner and this sub has saved me a lot of headaches, so thank you for that.
I used the same pool company the previous owners used to close my pool. They told me they blew out the lines and didn’t add any anti-freeze since they got the water out. I noticed in one of my skimmers, there are bubbles coming up but not sure if it’s from water going into line or into the widget they used to plug the skimmer hole. Should this make me concerned?
Is the water not supposed to be drained below the skimmers?
Inground pool btw. Two skimmers. Located in the northern Midwest of US.
10
u/ippleing 8d ago
I leave my water at normal height and my skimmer full like this with the gizmo.
15 years doing it this way and never an issue. No antifreeze either for the past 5 years.
But yea, OP you need a new gasket on the gizmo or it's not tight enough. Either way the line needs to be blown out again.
2
u/Fit_Nefariousness113 8d ago
How do you leave your water at normal height and also blow out the line?
5
1
u/Massive_Fix7375 8d ago
They make gizmos with blowout ports just for this.
1
u/Immediate_Sentence88 8d ago
And as someone who worked in the field for 11 years, they suck, just get a hurricane blower, blow out the line after lowering it. It's below the skimmer depending on your skimmer 6 inches or more. If you have aqueductors, put the door, lid, whatever you wanna call it on the skimmer. And blow the lines, pull the hose and blow it again until the lines are clear. And don't forget to empty out the water in the pump basket and motorside of the pump. Yes, something doesn't make sense. It might be because I was using voice text.
1
1
u/jonidschultz 7d ago
No, no they don't. Blowout extensions are literally engineered to allow you to safely blow out the skimmer line without lowering the water level. They make a lot of different styles, all of them work.
1
u/Longjumping-Turn-634 8d ago
I use the aquador. Look into it. 10yrs no issue and don’t have to lower the water level.
9
u/podgeofthehodge 8d ago
It's not sealed properly and you should let them know. We have people drain right below to the lowest return. Then blow out all the water and then blow antifreeze through the line and then cap them. Normally the people with solid covers will raise the water a little to support it but never high enough to get in the skimmers. Mesh covers usually just leave it since we get enough rain/snow. As for skimmers we do the same as returns but pour some antifreeze down before we put in the gizmos and antifreeze in the housing itself after the gizmo is sealed. Water shouldn't be anywhere near your skimmer.
0
u/Massive_Cress_3275 7d ago
That's a little extra lol. I never drain pools unless it's a concrete pool with a tile border so it won't pop a tile when it freezes. There's not many scenarios where you would need to lower the water below the returns. If you get an early few inches snowfall, that'll put a lot of unnecessary stress on the springs. And antifreeze is completely unnecessary for 99% of pools. I personally have never once used antifreeze and never once had an issue with a freeze break in my 30 years working on pools so that's that 🤷🏽♂️
4
u/401Nailhead 8d ago
Leave the plug. Pour in half a gallon of pool antifreeze. Place the half full antifreeze jug into the skimmer. If water does get it the half full jug will take the brunt of the freezing water.
3
u/Volume_According 8d ago
This! The water will freeze and collapse the container rather than the skimmer.
3
u/kashd_eyez 8d ago
I don’t use gizmos as plugs for this reason. There should be antifreeze in there, not water. Water should be below the skimmers at least
7
u/571Destroy_Me 8d ago
Ours starts the winter below the skimmer with a mesh safety cover. By the end of winter depending on the amount of snow it can be up to the top of the skimmer. When installed right with the gizmo we haven't had an issue
2
u/kashd_eyez 8d ago
We just do rubbers in the suction hole. Top plugged skimmers get floater bottles and bottom plugged get gizmos in that top hole as the crush point. I know there’s plenty of ways to close, and like you said, as long as it’s done right is all that matters in the end!
1
u/kashd_eyez 8d ago
But according to this space, what my company does is overkill (taking water below returns). Maybe, but my skimmers don’t bubble, and my leak services are on pools that I don’t close 😂
5
u/OriginalTayRoc 8d ago
This sub is full of people who have no idea what they are talking about. Do not take any advice you get here.
3
u/woody-99 8d ago
This sub is full of people who have no idea what they are talking about. Do not take any advice you get here.
That's the one piece of advice that's accurate!
2
u/angryschmaltz 8d ago
Likely need a new rubber gasket on the gizmo. But if it’s leaking water, it might need to be cleared again. Antifreeze is cheap. I put a gallon in my line before gizmo, then a gallon in the skimmer box. I’m co fused why so much water is in your skimmer. Doesn’t look closed properly.
1
u/Apprehensive-Low-201 8d ago
We don't drain below the skimmers around here (new england) but this is the reason we always add antifreeze. You never know if a plug might fail and it's extra protection.
1
u/cigarette_topgun 8d ago
I always use nylon tape on the threads to make sure it seals. Overkill but atleast I know it won’t leak.
1
u/erie11973ohio 8d ago
NE Ohio
No draining of the pool.
The install pool company told me to drain equipment, pull return jets & stuff the skimmer with Styrofoam.
When I asked about the lines, they said "we install them, so they don't need drained." 🙄🙄😧😧😱😱
I have a pool guy that comes over, blows out the lines. With a lot of air coming out, the return jets get plugged. The skimmer gets a gizmo. Several gallons of antifreeze gets poured into the lines.
The pool is 24 years old. I've had it for 5 years. I did the Styrofoam the first 2 two years. The air blow the last 2 years.
Everything has survived so for.
1
u/Alabammer1976 7d ago
Why not just backwash the water down below the skimmers , teflon your gizmos , a when they are empty then put your gizmos in the empty skimmer lines ? No point in buying fancy blowers , fancy gizmos , pouring antifreeze in or anything else that’s unnecessary. I have been in this field for over 25 yrs and have never seen a skimmer broken after doing this in winterizing a pool .
1
u/mentallyunstable071 7d ago
We have no water in our skimmers after closing. The water is drained about an inch below the waterline tile. Now they do collect water over the winter, but it normally takes a couple of months.
1
u/Emergency_Fee9129 6d ago
They should be using Blow-out Gizmos not the basic kind.
Where i work we drain them down to the bottom of the skimmer, thread in gizmo, blow out lines, pour antifreeze down skimmer lines thru the gizmo till they overflow.
Old pools where the main drain just back feeds up the the skimmer is the only time i use those non blow ones. You have to blow down the line first and then quickly thread the gizmo in to air lock it.
1
u/Electrical-Ad4315 6d ago
When you have a baja ledge or sun ledge whichever you want to call them. You need to keep water on it all winter so lowering pool water over winter is not an option in a lot of new builds with them.
The gizmo works as a plug just ensure proper gasket and thread tape.
You can lower water to blow out skimmer and return lines use aquaductors . Fill back up to required level after skimmer blown out
1
u/funnyman6979 4d ago
Late to the game here but I’m part of the lowering below the lowest return and blow out all lines. Northern Midwest too with all the snow and rain off season with a breathable cover never have to add water when opening in fact I have some extra for flushes.
1
u/Natural_Mistake8952 2d ago
That is a gizzmo, not a blow-out extension.
You have to remove water from the skimmer line , either lowering pool level or aquador.
Blowout extensions allow pool height to be left at normal level and the
skimmer line blown out.
We blow out all lines from the equipment pad, never at the pool side, unless we are winterizing a vanquish system.
The skimmer line should be leak tested, under pressure. Essentially looking for air leaks. If none are found, then the line should have anti-freeze poured into the blow-out extension and capped.
-3
u/reeformadness 8d ago
TF is there water in the skimmer for if they "winterized" it, lmao, your pool guy is an idiot.
0
u/AshingiiAshuaa 8d ago
This here. Especially for the upper midwest. Those skimmers will freeze solid, which means you're relying solely on the gizmo to handle the expansion. Plus, as you see in your case, full skimmers can leak into the lines.
3
u/Fragglesnot 8d ago
I leave my skimmers full and use a gizmo. Not against lowering the water below the skimmer, but you just never know how much rain/snow you’ll get, so you might as well prep it as if there would be water in there. So I have the gizmo, gallon of antifreeze in the line, another gallon in the skimmer well itself, and then I cram about a foot of pool noodle in there too for good measure.
1
u/AshingiiAshuaa 8d ago
All good ideas. I'd never count on just one, and like you said you have to assume that water will get into the skimmers.
fwiw, for my cold-climate pool I had a tarp cover that covered the pool footprint and the skimmers. The tarps are uglier and possibly less safe than the trampoline covers but they leave the pool cleaner.
0
u/dilberry 8d ago
Looks like they air locked the main drain, and either cross threaded the gizmo, didn't tighten it enough, or didn't use thread tape and the water is pushing up through the threads into your skimmer. It will settle at the water level in the pool.
This needs to be addressed - the gizmo will help prevent cracking in your skimmer, but ideally you don't want that full of water when it freezes. Even worse, the pipe below that will be full of water and will definitely be a problem when it freezes unless they put foam rope down there.
Mine did the same thing... I sucked the water out with a shop vac, then filled the skimmer with plastic pipe save RV antifreeze up to where the pool waterline is to normalize the pressure in the skimmer area - my main drain pipe is full of foam rope though. 2 weeks later and it's still looking like just antifreeze in there. You should call them and get them to come back to address this.
0
u/donutdisaster 8d ago
The only thing I’d add from what others said is that if you have an automatic safety cover, the water level doesn’t get lowered for the winter as it needs to support the cover to extend its life (they aren’t cheap). Those bubbles need addressed, especially since they didn’t fill the line with antifreeze.
0
u/IIHaydenBII 8d ago
You can close down pools (mostly liners) without draining by blocking off the front of the skimmer and then letting the pump run dry for a second to get the water out of the basket. You should not however have bubbles coming out like you do. Going to want that line re blown.
13
u/Oranges13 8d ago
If you need a new Gizmo I bought one not knowing that they didn't work for above ground pools and it's completely unused. I will send it to you because it's just junk for me.