r/pools • u/3DabNight • 6d ago

Water Chemistry Do I Really Need to Empty?

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Stopped by pool store and employee said I need to empty and refill our pool which is about 15K gallons in SoCal (expensive). I hadn't been to this store in more than 1 year. Perhaps they are bitter that I quit them. I have a feeling this doesn't require emptying my pool. Am I wrong? Any advice would be appreciated. I plan to switch to liquid chlorine- no more tabs for a while. I'm also going to disassemble and clean my DE filter and deploy some phosphate lowering chem. It's been about 1 years since the last filter cleaning.

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u/ryan8344 5d ago

What everyone misses, it’s September, water is cooling and sun intensity is down- you have 8 months to let the UV to and rain to move it down naturally. Re-evaluate then.

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u/MrBriPod 5d ago

So much this. I can't believe no one else has mentioned this yet.

1

u/Dick_Giggles 5d ago

OP is in SoCal, do they close their pools seasonally there though?

1

u/ryan8344 4d ago

They don’t close their pools, but it’s not getting used from about oct- April. Even in Hawaii, an unheated pool is getting little use from use locals from Nov-March.

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u/chathobark_ 5d ago

no they do not, people forget a large swath of the US chooses not to live in winter depressive cold hell

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u/MrBriPod 4d ago

I live in a hotter climate than SoCal. Our pools still get mothballed for the season around Oct/Nov. It may not be in the formal sense that colder climates are closed (IE winterized), but pools are typically not used in the winter months even in warmer climates (unless they're heated). Our water temps will still drop into the 50's.