We’re stuck in the UK at the moment, with flights being cancelled and no certainty about when we are going to be come over to France and do our normal Spring activities of opening up the house, and de-winterising the pool.
Does anyone have any idea how long we’ll be able to leave the pool before it starts going green? We normally leave the pump running for around 4 hours per day during the winter, and come back in April to pump any excess water out of the pool, check the salt levels and and put the electrolyser back into service. Unfortunately, since a power cut around a month ago which seems to have tripped the fuse, the pump hasn’t been operational. At the moment we can’t ask a neighbour to go and set the pump running again, and who knows how long that will be the case?
How long before the pool starts turning green?
Is it covered? If so it might be delayed. If not, could be anytime depending on the weather, sunlight etc. If you’re not there /here not a lot you can do about it, so not a lot of point worrying and deal with it at a later date. You won’t be the only one, lots of grass, gardens will need a lot of attention when this current shitfest is over.
Mark is correct. If covered it will last well into May, perhaps longer.
Running the pump over Winter will do little for the pool as you are not generating Chlorine as the water temperature is below 15 DegC. If you do run the pump then adding Chlorine Lente once a month will help. 1 tablet per 10M3 of water and run the pump for 4 hours a day.
If it does go green then shock, floc and filter will soon sort it out.
Claretop is an excellent product if the is no Chlorine in the pool although I think sales now may be restricted to us professionals only
Why can’t you ask your neighbour to set the pump running if they are not going to come into contact with anyone else?
Thank you for the replies, I am re-assured that when we are finally able to get to France we won’t open the covers up to a stagnant green pond. Without going into too much detail we have invested heavily in this pool, so have all the covers, pumps, winterising kits that could possibly be used, including slow release chlorine. The advice of the pool supplier is to keep the pump running over winter in case of very low temperatures & frost, and to circulate the slow release chlorine. So far, this has worked perfectly and when we make our normal spring visit we just have to put our robot in the pool, check the salt, set the electrolyser, and we’re good to go. Unfortunately our neighbour can’t just visit and check the electrics because of the restrictions in place (not at home owing to caring for elderly parents), but they are normally the best neighbours anyone could wish for.