There are many ways to avoid these types of things from happening by simply just learning how to properly take care of your pool cover after it is installed by you or a swimming pool service professional. The most common mistake is that pool owners will think that once the cover is installed that is it for the season until spring comes around again. What they fail to realize is that this is completely false and in fact there is a lot more to do to your pool cover during the winter.

How To Protect Your Swimming Pool Cover From Winter
These are what we call the ” top five winter pool cover care tips”. These five tips will hep you protect the swimming pool cover from the elements as we described above. If you feel that you can not do the work described below it may be best of you sign a service contract with a local pool company so that they can come and take care of you cover in the winter.

These tips will be for above ground pools as well as in ground pools. If you have a “portable pool” you may be able to follow some of the above ground pool tips and apply or adapt them to your situation.
How To Remove Ice and Water From A Pool Cover
The best way to remove ice and water from the swimming pool cover is to use a pump. You will have to wait for a warm day when the ice melts and then pump off the cover. It is never a good idea to try to remove ice from the pool cover because it has sharp edges and if you drop the ice, it will cut a whole or gash though the cover.

The best way to prevent large build ups of ice is to keep the water level on top of the pool cover to a minimum. You will want to keep an inch of water on top of the pool cover to keep it from blowing during heavy winds.
How To Protect Your Pool Cover From Wind Damage
Heavy winds and rain can blow the pool cover around and even completely off of the swimming pool. When this happens the cover could tear, rip or possibly even be shredded into pieces if it is windy enough. You can protect this from happening by taking a few easy steps. We will first explain how to secure an Above ground swimming pool.

You will want to do three things to totally protect your above ground swimming pool cover from the wind.The first thing you will want to do is make sure the cable and the winch are totally tight and secure. The second thing you will want to do is to use either pool clips that clip onto the railing of the pool or use bleach bottles full of sand and hand them from several places on the pool cover, some may say this is not professional but it actually works way better then pool clips. If you have a deck around your above ground pool with water bags and you are just plain old tired of replacing them you can instead fill coffee can containers with sand and place them on top of the cover instead of water bags. The third thing you will want do to protect the cover from wind is to add a few hundred gallons of water on top of the cover. That may sound like a lot of water but its only about 10 minutes or less of running the garden hose,. You also have to remember that the pool cover is large and this water will spread out, so a hundred gallons won’t seem like much after you ad it but will be enough to hold the cover in place.
Protecting you in-ground pool cover from wind
If you have an in-ground pool cover you can follow most of the steps that we had mentioned on the above ground how to. You will not need a cable or winch but you will be able to use coffee cans, bricks, boards and much more to hold down your pool cover then water bags that pop and rip year after year.

You will also just want to keep a small amount of water on top of the in-ground pool cover as well to make sure that the pool cover stays on place and does not lift off on windy days.
How To Protect Your Pool Cover From Leaves & Tree Branches
Every year when the pool guys go to take off the pool cover the cover has holes in it because of some type of tree branch or leaves that have destroyed the cover. There is two things that you can do to protect your pool from being damaged by the winter and the trees.

The first thing you will want to do is hire a professional tree specialist to remove any overhanging tree limbs that may land in your pool of they were to somehow break off the tree. Dead tree limbs are a #1 cause to holes in swimming pool covers during the course of the winter, closely followed by seam rips. The second thing you can do is to buy a swimming pool leaf net that installs right on top of the pool cover. This leaf net is made from mess so the water drains right through but the leaves get stuck, once the leaves all fall you can just pull off the net.
How To Make Sure Your Pool Cover Doesn’t Blow Off The Pool
The number one thing that happens to all new swimming pool owners during their first winter season is that the pool cover blows off of the pool. Now, this also happens to a lot of seasoned pool owners as well as professional swimming pool companies. This can all be avoided by simply just making sure to tuck of of your straight edge corners under the cover making all the edges round in a sense. After you do that you will want to make sure that the corners are all weighed down worth water bags or objects heavy enough. If you have a swimming pool cover pump you will want to drain the pool cover as we mentioned in the steps above, but it’s not that easy to drain the pool cover off if you have leaves and other debris on the cover. What usually happens is that the pump impeller or the pump filter will get clogged and the pump will stop pumping. This can happen over and over again until the pool owner gets frustrated enough and just gives up.

The best way not to get frustrated and keep that pump pumping with out getting clogged is to take the pump and place it inside of a 5 gallon bucket that has a few holes drilled into it. You will then take this bucket with the pump in it and place it on the pool cover. This will stop the big leaves and other debris from clogging your pump.
Bonus Protection Tips For Safety Swimming Pool Cover Owners
If you have a loop-loc, Meyco, Merlin or any other type of safety pool cover you will want to know about these three top tips to protect the cover from damage which could result in an expensive repair bill. Here is what you want to do to protect your swimming pool safety cover during the winter.

The first thing you will want to do is to make sure that are the safety cover springs are tight and the cover is not sagging. If the cover springs are loose that could cause them to pop off and then one by one the cover will have less support and that will eventually lead to tears or rips in the seams of the cover. The second thing you will want to do to protect your safety pool cover is to make sure that you don’t lower the water to much on the pool when you are closing it. Many pool guys will tell you to lower the water and then you will wind up stretching the cover out when large amounts of ice and snow sit on top of the cover. Just lower the water a few inches below the skimmer and keep an eye on it.

The third thing you will want to do is to make sure that your water level in your swimming pool stays at a safe height. Like we mentioned above, if you remove to much water from your swimming pool cover you will wind up stretching it out and then it can be damaged. If you live in an area where there is heavy rains, you will just have to set a pump on the step of the pool before closing it and when you feel the water level is to high you can just turn the pump on to remove some excess water. Now that you know how to protect your above ground or in-ground swimming pool cover from the winter elements you can and will save hundreds if not thousands of dollars on costly swimming pool covers and safety swimming pool cover repair.

Top Five Winter Swimming Pool Cover Care Tips is a post from: Swimming Pool Tech Articles & News

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In December 2007, a new federal law was passed it is called the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. This law that goes into effect on December 19,2008 will require new protection against the hazards of the main drain. There are new safety requirements that must be met by all water recreational facilities including public swimming pool. These new guidelines and regulations will be monitored by Washington State Department of Health and all local health jurisdictions.

The new law will require that all facilities will install new drain covered that meet with the current safety standards. Plus all public facilities with single swimming pool main drains must install additional entrapment prevention equipment that must also comply with the Federal Law. These new swimming pool drain covers are called anti-drowning drain covers because they will help prevent a child from drowning.

What does the Federal Law Require Of Pool Main Drains?

All main drains covers must meet with the ASME A112.19.8-2007. All covers that are on submerged suction outlets including and not limited to equalizer lines must also meet the ASME A112.19.8-2007. The Federal Law requires that the maximum velocity of the across drain may exceed 1.5 fps. All main drains must include a sump meeting dimensional and flow characteristics. All sumps need to provide a minimum distance between the bottom of the cover and the nearest location of the piping that comes into the sump. This must be equal to 1.5 times the diameter of the pipe or it must meet the minimum dimensions established by the cover’s manufacturer. The cover of the main drains must be secured to the sump.

On all Single Main Drains, these requirements must be met. All water facilities must have a safety Vacuum Release System in place, a Suction Limiting Vent System, a Gravity Drainage System, an Unblockable Drain, an Automatic shutoff without a vacuum release. These main drains must have a drain disablement without the main drain. If facilities have a manual shut off switch and an audible alarm, the Federal Law Systems decree that this is not acceptable. On Multiple Main Drains, all drains must be spaced less than 3 feet apart from the required additional entrapment prevention measurements. All multiple main drains will need a design analysis to assure the hydraulic balance. All of these requirements must be met by December 19, 2008. There may be additional state laws that you must follow so contact your local health jurisdiction to see if any extra steps must be taken.

How can I find the new required cover I will need?

Before you can purchase your new cover, you must provide the equipment manufacturer with some pool information. You must know the following information. You must know the maximum flow rate of the pool’s re-circulation system, you must also know the manufacturer and the model number on the existing system that you have and that includes the pump, motor, main drain cover and the sump.

You will also need to know the location of the main drain (either on the bottom of the pool or on the sidewall). You may have to provide a sketch of the existing drain sump with the dimensions that identify the overall sump size and what the shortest distance between the sump outlet.

Can I fill in the main drain?

The CPSC encourages the fill in of the main drain as the most effective way to prevent entrapment of the main drain. The idea that a pool without suction is a safe way to stop entrapment in the drain. But by covering or disabling the main drain you may have problems with the water circulation patterns in the pool, which may result in poor water quality. You should first consider the problems that you may before you decide to fill in the main drain.

What elements must the new Main Drain have?

All main drain covers must be tested by a national recognized testing laboratory such as the NSF- International or International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials and they must comply with the ASME112.19.8-2007 standard. The main drains must be rated for maximum flow of the re-circulation system. The new standard establishes a minimum design and performance criteria to address the potential for hair, limbs and body entrapment. They must also be consistent with their application and placement ratings. The use in the single drain or multiple drain application and the placement location. These units must be installed on an outlet sump that complies with the ASME A112.9.8-2007.

What happens if I cannot comply with the new law by December 19,2008?

The CPSC, which is the Federal Agency that is responsible for enforcing the law, will anticipate all owners and operators to comply with the new law as soon as the equipment is ready for installation. The CPSC may determine if a civil penalty or a criminal penalty on the facilities that do not comply. But the CPSC has said that they understand that changing or implementing new systems may take some time so they recommend the following.

• Determine just what equipment is needed for your facility
• Locate and obtain the necessary equipment meeting the new federal law
• Obtain a plan review if required and
• Arrange for installation by skilled personnel with knowledge of the ASME A112.19-8-2007 standard.

Once I comply how can I show my compliance with the law?

All facility operators and owners will have to keep all information available that will verify that the Federal Law has been met. Contact your local health jurisdiction for specific information they may require for proof.

The Federal Law and the CSPC agency enforcing the law cannot know all of the problems that may or may not occur. So they have designed a system to take care of the problems that they can anticipate. There may be some rule amendments in the future. These laws are designed to keep all recreational swimmers safe and to protect them against the hazards of the powerful main drains that exist in recreational and public swimming pools.

How To Comply With The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act is a post from: Swimming Pool Tech Articles & News

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