Closing pool early this year, bad idea?

[John Knight]

We’ve had a cooler than usual September and we honestly haven’t used the pool in almost two weeks. I’m debating closing it earlier than I normally do (usually mid October). Is there any downside to closing early if we’re pretty much done swimming anyway?

 

[Joe Smith]

We’ve had a cooler than usual September and we honestly haven’t used the pool in almost two weeks. I’m debating closing it earlier than I normally do (usually mid October). Is there any downside to closing early if we’re pretty much done swimming anyway?

I’ve closed early a few times when the weather shifted fast. As long as your water is clean and balanced before closing it’s not really an issue. Just means less debris to deal with later.

 

[Warren Dale]

We’ve had a cooler than usual September and we honestly haven’t used the pool in almost two weeks. I’m debating closing it earlier than I normally do (usually mid October). Is there any downside to closing early if we’re pretty much done swimming anyway?

Only downside I can think of is if you get a random warm spell and regret it. That’s happened to me once. Otherwise, closing earlier can actually make spring opening easier.

 

[Danny Meerman]

We’ve had a cooler than usual September and we honestly haven’t used the pool in almost two weeks. I’m debating closing it earlier than I normally do (usually mid October). Is there any downside to closing early if we’re pretty much done swimming anyway?

I try to wait until water temps consistently drop below 60°F before closing. Warmer water under a cover can sometimes create extra work when you open again.

 

[John Knight]

That’s helpful. Water temp is hovering around 62,64 right now so maybe I’ll wait another week or so just to be safe. Appreciate the input.

 

[Michael Williams]

I try to wait until water temps consistently drop below 60°F before closing. Warmer water under a cover can sometimes create extra work when you open again.

Closing early isn’t automatically a bad idea, but I’d follow Danny Meerman’s temperature point: if the water is still hovering around 62–64°F and can bounce warmer, there’s a small risk the water sits under the cover and gets musty/algae-prone by spring. I usually wait until the water temp is consistently down (around under 60°F) before closing, or if I’m closing now, I make sure chemistry is truly dialed in, remove all debris, oxidize as needed, and run circulation long enough beforehand so it’s not going into “stagnant mode” while it’s still relatively warm.