Winter Care of Your Inground Pool: What to Do After Winterization
The pool guy pulls away after winterizing your pool in November, and most homeowners think they’re done until spring. Then comes that January afternoon when the backyard looks like a giant water bed, with three inches of standing water sagging in the middle of the cover. Or worse, the dreaded spring phone call: “We found a tear in your cover, and the water level dropped six inches over winter.”
Once your inground pool is winterized in Central Indiana, your job isn’t over. Proper winter maintenance protects your pool cover, prevents damage, and makes spring opening much easier. The most important task is managing your cover pump correctly as temperatures drop and rise throughout our unpredictable Midwest winter.
What Happens After We Winterize Your Pool?
After professionals winterize your pool (balancing chemicals, lowering water levels, blowing out lines, and installing the winter cover), homeowners need to maintain the cover throughout winter. Think of winterization as closing the pool properly, and winter care as keeping watch over it until spring.
Your pool is now in hibernation mode. The equipment is off, the lines are clear of water, and chemicals are balanced. But your pool cover will collect rain, snow melt, and debris for the next several months. How you manage that buildup determines whether you open to a clean pool in April or a mess in May.
The Cover Pump: Your Winter Workhorse
Your cover pump keeps water and debris off the pool cover until ice starts forming. The pump has a float sensor that activates when water reaches about 2 to 3 inches deep. As long as conditions stay above freezing, that pump should stay out there doing its job.
Why does this matter? Water accumulation on a pool cover can tear or sag the fabric, create a drowning hazard for children and pets, and become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Even a few inches of standing water puts stress on the cover seams and can eventually pull water out of your pool.
When to Pull the Pump In
Here’s the critical part: once you see ice forming on any part of your cover, pull that pump off immediately.
Running a cover pump while it’s encased in ice can cause the float to freeze, burn out the motor, or trip your GFCI breaker. The pump thinks it needs to work, but the impeller can’t move because ice has locked everything in place. That’s how you end up buying a new pump in February.
Watch the weather in Indiana. When overnight lows consistently hit the upper 20s and you notice ice forming (especially in shaded areas), bring the pump inside. Don’t wait until the entire cover is frozen. If half the cover has ice and the other half is dry, that’s your signal.
The February Thaw
Around early to mid-February, Central Indiana usually gets a stretch of warmer days. The ground thaws, ice melts, and suddenly you have water pooling on the cover again. This is when you set that pump back out. Let it run until the cover is dry, then pull it back in before the next cold snap.
During late winter when snow and ice melt rapidly, water can concentrate in one spot on the cover, putting extreme weight and pressure on both the cover and the tracks. Stay vigilant during these thaw cycles.
You might repeat this on-and-off routine two or three times through winter, depending on how wild the weather gets. It’s a small hassle that prevents a big headache.
What About Snow and Ice on the Cover?
Leave it alone. Seriously.
Winter pool covers are designed to float on pool water and can handle several feet of snow without issue. The snow will melt eventually, and when it does, your cover pump (if it’s safe to have it out) will handle the runoff.
Never try to break up ice, shove snow off, or lift the cover to see what’s happening underneath. You can tear the fabric or puncture the cover. Snow weighs between 12 and 20 pounds per cubic foot, while ice and water weigh around 60 pounds per cubic foot. That weight is spread across the entire cover surface and supported by the water underneath. Breaking that ice can stress the cover in ways it wasn’t designed for.
Alex and Cory break down the essential winter care tasks every pool owner needs to know.
Leave the Pool Cover Closed All Winter
Once your pool is closed for the season, resist the urge to open the cover. The reasons are simple and expensive.
When ice forms under your cover (which it will), opening the cover can crack that ice sheet and tear the cover fabric from the inside. Even worse, the cover tracks and ropes can freeze solid. When cover tracks freeze, the ropes lock up and the cover won’t open or close properly. We’ve had service calls in Avon and Plainfield where homeowners tried to open their cover on a 40-degree day in January, only to have the system jam halfway.
Opening the cover also exposes the pool to debris, which defeats the entire purpose of winterization. Once that cover is shut in November or December, leave it that way until we come out to open your pool in spring.
Managing Leaves and Debris
If you have heavy leaf cover from oak or maple trees and no ice on the cover, you can carefully net off leaves when things are dry. This keeps the cover a bit cleaner through winter and reduces the organic load that could stain the cover.
A better option is a leaf net installed over the pool cover in fall. The net catches most leaves, and you can lift the entire net off in one motion when winter arrives. This saves your cover pump from clogging and extends the life of your winter cover.
Leaves can clog the vents on the underside of cover pumps, preventing them from working properly and allowing water to accumulate. If your pump seems to be struggling, flip it over and check for debris blocking the intake.
Keep Your Pool Full
Throughout winter, check your pool’s water level periodically. Your pool needs to stay full to support the cover and protect the pool structure from hydrostatic groundwater pressure.
If you notice the water level dropping significantly (more than a few inches below where it was at closing), you may have a leak in your cover or an issue with the pool itself. A pool system with top track or flush track should have about a 9 to 10 inch drop from where the cover exits the track to where it rests on the water surface when the pool is full. Under-track systems have a 6 to 7 inch drop to water.
If you suspect your cover is leaking, don’t panic. Small holes and weak spots are common, especially in older covers. You can patch these in spring, but for now, just be aware that you may need to add water periodically to keep the level stable. Use a garden hose placed in the skimmer (with the cover closed) to top off the pool when needed.
What We Don’t Worry About
- Don’t stress over snow sitting on the cover for weeks.
- Don’t worry about thin ice forming on top.
- Don’t concern yourself with minor sagging in the center of the cover (that’s normal as water accumulates and the cover floats lower).
Do worry about prolonged water accumulation, cover pumps left out during freezing weather, and the temptation to open the cover mid-winter.
Common Winter Care Mistakes to Avoid
Leaving the cover pump on during freezing temps. This is the number one mistake we see. The pump will fail, and you’ll have weeks of water building up before you realize it’s not working.
Trying to remove snow or break ice on the cover. You’re more likely to damage the cover than help it.
Forgetting to check the pool during warm spells. Those February and March thaws can dump a lot of melt water onto your cover fast. Get the pump back out there.
Draining the pool too low. Some homeowners think lowering the water level even further during winter will help, but it actually puts stress on the cover and can cause structural issues with the pool walls.
Opening the cover to check on things. We get it, curiosity happens. But that quick peek can lead to a jammed cover system or a torn cover.
What About Automatic Pool Covers?
If you have an automatic safety cover instead of a traditional winter cover, most of the same rules apply. Keep your cover pump on the cover to remove snow melt and rain, but remove it before freezing temperatures and snow accumulation. Do not attempt to operate the cover if there are any signs of freezing, as this can damage the tracks, ropes, and motor system.
Automatic covers are rated to hold significant weight (around 2,000 pounds), but concentrated snow, ice, and water in one area can exceed that rating quickly. Use your cover pump during safe weather, pull it during freezes, and never try to open the cover when ice or snow is present.
The Spring Payoff
Proper winter maintenance means less work in April. When we arrive to open your pool, the cover will be in good shape, the water level will be stable, and the cover itself won’t be stained from months of standing water and organic debris.
You won’t need cover repairs. You won’t need to refill half the pool. And you’ll be swimming weeks earlier because the water stayed cleaner through winter.
It’s all about staying vigilant during thaw cycles, respecting the ice, and knowing when to bring that cover pump inside.
We’re Here to Help
Winter pool care doesn’t have to be stressful. Most of it comes down to common sense and paying attention when the weather shifts. If you’re ever unsure about whether to pull your pump, add water, or if something looks off, give us a call.
We serve pool owners throughout Central Indiana, including Indianapolis, Carmel, Fishers, Westfield, Noblesville, Greenwood, Avon, and Plainfield. Whether you need winterization services, spring opening, or help troubleshooting a winter issue, Pools by Corey has your back.
Ready to schedule your spring pool opening or have questions about winter care? Call us at 317-800-5093 to get on the schedule.