How often should you open your pool for the season?

Why bother

Get it swim-ready before the season. Standard upkeep. Dull and cheap, and a lot less dull than whatever it's quietly preventing.

What the job involves

1. Pump the water off the cover, peel it back, then hose it down, dry it and store it. Skim out whatever the winter dropped in before it sinks.
2. Pull the winterizing plugs, put the drain plugs back, and reattach the lot: ladders, rails, the diving board, skimmer baskets.
3. Top the water back to its normal line, then start up the pump and filter and leave it running. It runs continuously from here, not in fits and starts.
4. Test the water and balance it (alkalinity, pH, calcium hardness), then shock it. Run the filter 24 to 48 hours until it goes clear, brushing and vacuuming as you go.

Do it yourself, or pay someone?

Yourself, if you're alright with the chemistry and the plumbing: $50 to $150 in shock, balancing chemicals and test strips, less if you've supplies on hand. A pro runs about $200 to $500 (above-ground $175 to $250, inground $250 to $500, concrete toward the top). Pay one if you don't know where the winterizing plugs are, the cover's too heavy to wrestle solo, or the water's already gone green.

What skipping it costs

$200 to $1,500, and it's the waiting that puts you there. Open on time and it's a sink-and-balance job. Leave the cover on past the point daytime temps hold above 70F and the stagnant water underneath goes green, so you're not balancing chemistry anymore, you're clearing a bloom. A mild one is extra shock and algaecide on a normal opening. A bad one is a "green-to-clean" service, roughly $200 to $600 in labor plus $30 to $150 in chemicals over one to several visits. If the algae's stained the plaster, it's a full drain and acid wash at $800 to $1,500 or more. And you'll be paying peak-season prices, because everyone else waited too.

Signs it's overdue

• Daytime temperatures are sitting above 70F and the pool's still shut. That's the line where algae starts growing under the cover, whether you've looked or not.
• The water you can see at the edge of the cover is tinting green or going cloudy. It won't sort itself.
• It's the middle of swim season and you're ringing round half-empty chemical shops and fully booked pool crews, because you left it.

When to start thinking about it

Give yourself about 7 days' notice. That's when Grumpty starts grumbling, so it doesn't land on you the day it's due. Mark it done and Grumpty sets the next one, every 12 months, so you can go back to forgetting it exists.

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