Wintering your pool using salt electrolysis: how to go about it
When autumn arrives, it is time to prepare your pool for the winter months.
This is essential to protect the pool and its equipment against the winter weather.
With a pool treated by salt electrolysis, wintering is child’s play.
Stérilor explains everything.
Why winter your pool?
Wintering a pool is essential to prevent damage caused by winter to the pool and its equipment, in particular the formation of ice.
This also protects your water quality to make it much easier to get your pool ready for the good weather, but also to avoid replacing the water every year.
When to prepare your pool for winter?
Even if it is advisable to winter your pool in autumn, it really depends on your local climate and the water temperature.
Wintering should be done when the water temperature is below 12°C in a steady state (15°C for salt water pools).
At this temperature, micro-organisms, algae and bacteria no longer develop.
Starting wintering any earlier involves a risk of seeing germs proliferate and when spring comes around you’ll have a green pool!
Wintering techniques
There are two types of pool wintering: active and passive.
Active wintering is a technique that involves letting the pool systems operate on low settings.
The filtration system operates a few hours a day and keeps the pool clean.
Inversely, passive wintering which as its name indicates, requires no maintenance. The pool systems are all shut down during the winter period.
Wintering your salt water pool
Once the pool has been cleaned and the pH tested, the salt water pool can be put into wintering mode.
To do so, stop the electrolysis function as soon as the temperature is below or near 15°C.
Failing to observe this preparation will cause premature wear of the electrode.
Assess the state of wear of the electrode (limescale, corrosion) before removing it.
Then, remove the electrode from the water circuit and insert the wintering plug.
Check the state of the electrode and remove any limescale before rinsing, drying and storing it somewhere protected against freezing and not exposed to falls or impacts that could irreversibly damage the coating.
Monitor the salt level and regularly check the pH of the water which should be between 7.2 and 7.4.