Closing your In Ground pool

Closing an inground pool can be a daunting task, due to the fact that most of your plumbing is underground and it needs to be protected from freeze damage.  It is hard to verify that all of the water gets blown out of the lines, which is necessary to prevent damage. Here are a few tips to ensure that you have gotten all the water out of your skimmers, main drains and return lines.  Connect your air blower at one of your skimmers after you have lowered the water level below the skimmers.  Make sure you have a tight seal at the bottom of the skimmer with an adapter fitting and hose, so that no air is escaping around the hose.  Turn the air blower on and set your multiport valve in the 'recirculate' position, this will blow air through the skimmer, pump filter valve and back to the pool through the return lines.  You should see air shooting out the return lines back into the pool.  Once the returns are shooting mostly air, you have blown out the skimmer and returns.  If you have a main drain on the pool, leave the air blower on and move the multiport valve to the closed position.  This will force air down the main drain line and bubbles should start coming out of the drain.  While this is happening close your main drain valve, which is usually located at the pump.  This will 'air lock' the main drain line so water does not come back up into it.  Following these steps will help ensure that all your water is out of the lines and the pool will be ready to add antifreeze and plugs to all your pipes.