Cover collapsed under rain weight

[Megan Lawson]

Thought the cover was strong enough but a week of rain built up a pond on top and the middle finally gave in. Now the pool has all that dirty rainwater mixed in. Total mess. Not sure if I should scoop it out, pump it, or just give up and clean the pool from scratch.

 

[Olivia Reed]

Yikes, that’s always a pain. I’d start by removing as much of the pooled water on top as you can with a submersible pump or a heavy-duty wet/dry vacuum so you don’t dump all that gunk into the pool at once. Then scoop or siphon any big debris from the pool itself. Once the water level is normal, give the pool a good shock and run the filter nonstop for at least a day or two, backwash or clean the filter frequently because it’ll clog fast with all the extra muck. Brushing the walls and vacuuming the floor after the shock will help get the algae and dirt under control before it sets in.

 

[Edward Williams]

After that, make sure to brush the pool walls and clean the filter frequently, as it will clog up fast with all the extra muck. Vacuuming the floor and keeping everything under control will help the algae and dirt from setting in.

 

[Miguel Alvarez]

I’ve had something similar happen. I usually pump off all the dirty water sitting on the cover first so it doesn’t dump into the pool. After that I hit it with a strong shock and brush the walls and floor to keep the gunk from sticking.

 

[Giulia Durand]

If you still want to tackle it yourself, try getting rid of the dirty water and run the filter nonstop. But if it’s just too far gone, sometimes starting fresh is honestly faster.

 

[Matthew Collins]

That happened to me after a storm last year and the biggest mistake I made at first was pulling the cover too quickly. All that dirty water rushed into the pool at once and turned it into a brown soup.

What worked better the second time was slowly pumping the rainwater off the cover first. A small submersible pump makes it way easier because you can get most of that ponded water off without dumping the debris into the pool. Once the cover gets light again you can pull it off without dragging all the sludge in.

After that the main thing is circulation. When mine got hit with rainwater like that the filter pressure climbed about 6 psi within a few hours because it was catching so much fine dirt and organic debris. I ended up running the pump continuously for a day and brushing the walls and floor a couple times so the filter could grab everything instead of letting it settle.

It looks terrible at first but pools usually recover faster than you’d expect once the debris is out and the water is moving again. The filter just ends up doing a lot of overtime for a day or two. Did the cover tear in the middle or did the water just stretch it down into the pool? That makes a big difference for cleanup.