Many people may not need pool covers if there are enough safety measures already in place. If your pool's location is in an area with no big trees in the surrounding except for a few smaller ones and the pool receives moderate sunlight with no children at home and fencing around the pool, there is no need for enhancing safety any further by installing Just pool covers. But indeed, there is a need to protect the pool during the winter months. Winter is the time when you need to cover your swimming pool to keep it clean during the cold months when there is no use of it. The goal is to protect your pool from stains, algae growth, and help to maintain proper water balance, which can otherwise damage the pool surface.
In this case, since installing a pool cover is not a feasible option, but there are other ways of protecting the pool in winter.
Keep the pool clean
By using a leaf rake, a bag type of skimmer net scoop out twigs, leaves, and bugs from the surface as well as pool bottom or floor. Clean the pool surfaces with a pool brush every week. That allows some water circulation that breaks away tiny colonies of algae and bacteria formed on the floor and wall surfaces. It also moves dirt and oils. Clean the pool every week until it freezes solid.
Balance the water and test it
With the help of test kits, check the water quality thoroughly once or twice a month. During the winter months, rain and snow go into the pool water. It consumes the pool chemicals and upsets the balance of the chemical composition in water by disturbing the proportion of Calcium, Alkalinity, pH, and hardness. Take steps to maintain proper chemical balance in water during the winter months.
Use chlorine and algaecide
To maintain the right chlorine level in water float one or two chlorine floaters filled with tablets after closing the floater with baffles tightly. Refill the floaters after a few months and test the water regularly to maintain chlorine level at 1 ppm until the time the temperature drops below 60oF when 0.5 ppm Chlorine level would be good enough. Add the weekly dose of algaecide to the pool during the winter months.
Open the pool early
Make the winter window as short as possible by closing the pool late and opening it early by almost a month in ease case as compared to the standard norms of the region. However, for late closing the pool you may have to run the pump if there is a frost warning. Opening the pool a month ahead of the regular schedule should help to bring it back to normal condition by running the pump.
But all the hard work may not always produce the right results in pool protection during winter. So, pool covers are the most effective to cut-off debris and sunlight and protect the soft and shiny surfaces by conserving the pool chemicals.