How to Winterise Your Pool
UPDATED: 4 June 2025
So, what does winterising your pool mean? Well, in its true sense, winterising your pool refers to how to shut down your pool over winter in climates that experience severe cold weather, resulting in major frosts causing ice to form inside pipes and equipment or the pool freezing over. The ice expanding causes damage to pipes and equipment, such as split pipes etc.
Although it gets cold in Melbourne, it usually isn’t that cold for most of us, so what does it mean to winterise your pool in Melbourne? Winterising involves a few simple steps and is a great approach to reducing your costs & maintenance over the winter season and ensuring you don’t end up with a green pool to clean up in spring.
4 Steps to Winterise your pool:
- Clean your pool & filter
- Check the pool equipment and reset it for winter
- Check water quality and chemically balance your pool
- Continue routine maintenance
REQUEST A WINTER SERVICE
1. Clean your pool & filter – basic tasks such as,
- Scoop, vac & brush the whole pool to remove all debris
- Empty the skimmer & all pump baskets
- Backwash your media filter or deep clean your cartridge filter element
It’s important to keep the pool clean as organic matter left in the water for long periods of time increases the phosphate levels, which feed algae growth & can stain the surface of your pool.
Deep cleaning the cartridge filter element means using a filter cleaner/degreaser and thoroughly washing inside the pleats to remove as much of the ground-in debris as possible.
2. Check water quality and chemically balance your pool
It’s best to get the water balance correct at the start of winter as it will slowly dilute over the coming months. Let’s face it most of us struggle to check the water over winter, so if the levels are low at the start of winter and you don’t test the water again until spring or even later, depending on the weather, you are running the risk of damaging pool surfaces and equipment internals.
Also, low salt levels will damage the chlorinator electrode, and you may not produce chlorine, resulting in a green pool to clean up.
Bring in a water sample to us for a full water balance.
We also suggest oxidising your water to remove organic waste such as sunscreen and body oils that have built up over summer. Then add a phosphate remover & long-life algaecide such as Pool Pro “Winteriser” to add more protection from algae growth, but don’t use copper-based algaecides if your system uses an ioniser.
Read more about the different algaecides here
3. Check pool equipment and reset it for winter
- Check the pump is working well, with no loud noises or water leaks from underneath. Remove built-up leaf litter as this causes the exterior of the pump to rot and makes it easier to check for leaks.
- Check the salt cell for calcium build-up and clean with 10 parts water and 1-part acid solution if required.
- Reduce pump operating time over winter – generally 4 hours per day.
- Reduce your chlorine output and check the level weekly until you are confident it is stable.
- Switch your solar controller to winter mode if it has one.
4. Continue routine maintenance
- You still need to filter your water every day but at reduced running times – generally 4 hours per day.
- The pool still attracts leaves & dirt– so you should keep it clean to guard against phosphate buildup and surface staining.
- Backwash the filter or clean the cartridges once a month.
- Ideally, the water balance should be tested with us every month as chemicals will dilute with winter rains.
- Visually check the water every week or so to ensure that it remains clear and test the chlorine with a test strip while you are there.
We can’t emphasise enough how easy it is to overproduce chlorine in winter, especially if you have a pool blanket. While it stops anything living in there, chlorine is very corrosive in high quantities and will damage everything it comes into contact with eg: your pool surface, pool cleaners and your pool cover. It will shorten the life of your equipment, such as pumps and heaters, as it corrodes the internals.
Use a chlorine neutraliser to minimise damage, as turning down your chlorinator won’t reduce the existing level of chlorine in the pool it will only reduce future output.
Keeping your pool clean & clear will always be much more cost & time effective than trying to fix a green pool when you’re ready to swim again.
If you’d like us to ‘winterise’ your pool you can request a service online below or call our shop on (03) 9758 3777
REQUEST A WINTER SERVICE
How to Backwash Your Media Filter Properly
To clean contaminants from the filter, you’ll need to backwash the filter. Follow these basic steps to backwash your filter properly:
- Turn the pump OFF.
- Move the Multiport Valve handle to ‘Backwash’ & open any valves on your waste line.
- Turn the pump ON & run for 1 minute or until the sight glass is almost clear.
- Turn the pump OFF.
- Move the Multiport Valve handle to ‘Rinse’.
- Turn the pump ON & run for 15 seconds or until the sight glass is clear.
- Turn the pump OFF.
- Move the Multiport Valve handle to ‘Filter’ and close the valve on the waste line if you have one.
- Turn the pump ON and set the timer to automatic.
It’s best to soak cartridges in a cleaner suitable for pool & spa filters to remove body fats and other oils, such as sunscreen, that have built up over the summer. We recommend either Spa Pro Filter Cleaner & Degreaser or Poppits Filter Cartridge Cleaner.
