Empty Pool - Equipment ?
 

I have a home in Panama with a glass tile pool. Its my first pool. I am learning about pools on the fly, hampered somewhat by language barriers.

Found a leak on Sat at the pool main drain pipe exiting the pool to the pump house and it was necessary to drain the pool to make a repair. (Panama..... someone neglected to glue that fitting 9 years ago.....at least it made the silly repair easy).

The pool is a 2M x 10M lap pool that in effect is an above ground concrete structure on the side of a hill. The tile on the floor of the pool currently has little or no bond and I am considering letting the pool sit empty until late January when I could demo and replace it. I don't have time this trip. My profession is the installation of tile and I have a through understanding concerning that part of the pool.

My question concerns the pool equipment itself. Is there anything that would be detrimental to that equipment leaving the system off for a few months? Everything here is plumbed with PVC pipe and ball valves. There's a pump, a plastic filter tub full of #20 sand, various paper type filters, and a PureWater electrical thing with copper/silver plates. Its all off but still currently charged with water.

Panama is a hot, humid environment and everything here grows fast. I could either drain the pump house completely, leave it charged and boost the chlorine or acidity in an attempt to dissuade algae growth, or refill the pool and empty it again at a later date.

What should I do.

Given the environment I would be inclined to try and get all the water out of the system and seal it as best as possible. If you get algae in it it would be hard to eliminate.

Amateur pool owner here as well. Sounds like you have a salt water pool with a chlorine generator. That’s a nice setup.

I can’t see any reason why letting the equipment sit dry would be harmful. That’s actually the norm in cold places, where the pool gets shut down for the winter. I concur with David that getting it as dried out as possible will help control algae and make it easier to start back up. That said, I have found that enough chlorine shock will kill anything. :)

Thanks guys. Its a fresh water pool, not salt.

Am leaning towards leaving it empty and cutting some expansion joints in the tiled walls so they can move more during the hotter dry season that is approaching. The pool stays at a fairly constant 85-87F year round here which when operational mitigates expansion/contraction of the tile to a great degree, empty is different story.

Trying to get ahold of a pool sub from home who could advise how stable the concrete structure itself might be if left empty. Has held water for 9 years so that concrete was fairly saturated, its also susceptible to expansion and contraction and I wouldn't want to put it at risk.