The first step is to clean out any leaves, insects, dirt and debris. Use your pool vacuum, or just fish them out with a net. Clean out the skimmer and the pump basket, too. Clean the tile line with tile cleaner. Easier now than next spring, when the scum has had all winter to set.

This protects the pool from corrosion or scale buildup. Using a water test kit, adjust the water to the recommended levels of pH, total alkalinity, calcium (hardness) and chlorination. If you want to add a winterization chemical kit, do it now. These kits put high levels of chlorine and algaecide in the water to prepare it for the winter months ahead. Your pool retailer offers ready-made kits for the purpose; use according to the maker’s directions. In the case of larger pools, you may be directed to supplement the kit with additional quantities of some chemicals, too.

Don’t add tablets or a floater that contains chlorine or bromine – they can damage the equipment nearest them. If you already have chlorine or bromine tablets in your feeder, let them run out so that none remain. If you’re adding winterizing chemicals, pour them into a bucket and then into the pool. Some of these chemicals instruct you to turn on the pool filter while you add the chemicals. Make sure you do, especially if you have a vinyl liner pool – you don’t want stains on your liner from un-dissolved granules or damage to your equipment from concentrations of chemicals in the water.

When water freezes, it expands with enormous force. It’s the force that breaks up highways, splits garden hoses, explodes beverage cans in your freezer, and it’s the force that expands and cracks pool pipes, filters, pumps and skimmer baskets. If you are closing up your pool for the winter, you should always take precautions to protect from freeze damage no matter where you live – even pool owners in the South have learned, to their regret, that freezing temperatures are an ever-present risk. To start the process, drain the water down below the skimmer mouth. DO NOT EMPTY THE POOL! The expansion of the soil under the pool as the water in the soil freezes can jack the pool right out of the ground; it needs the weight of some water to keep it firmly in place. If you have the proper freeze protection in place, be certain it works! Test this by finding the copper wire in your timing mechanism and either wrap it with a cold ice pack or use your canned air (for your computer keyboard) by turning it upside down and spray the copper wire. If it turns the pool equipment on you’re good to go. Make sure all valves are open otherwise they will burst.

Disconnect your pump and filter. Make sure all water is completely drained from the pump. For insurance, turn it upside down once and dump any excess water out. Remove the drain plugs from it (there may be one or two); they’d trap water inside, which is bad. Once you’ve drained the pump, turn it on for just a second or two (no more – the seal is vulnerable to damage) to expel any remaining water from the impeller. Store any small plugs or parts in the pump basket, so they’re easy to find next year. If you have a heater, drain it and make sure there is no standing water inside. Blow it out with a compressor or shop vac. Drain the heater completely, remove any drain plugs, and stash those plugs too in the pump basket for next season. Remove all return jet fittings (the entire fitting!). If you crack a fitting while removing it, don’t panic! You can get a replacement come spring. Remove all skimmer baskets. Put fittings and any other items that you remove in one of the skimmer baskets or the pump basket to avoid loss (this includes the dive board bolts too).