For those living in areas that can be impacted by hurricanes, listen up: this applies to you! Hurricanes can wreak havoc on your pool and equipment so it’s important that you take hurricane preparedness steps for your pool too.
No one wants to have their pool party rained on, but Hurricane season dates run smack through the middle of the summer from June 1st until November 30th and can cause severe damage to your backyard oasis.
As with many pool care topics, Benjamin Frankiln’s famous quote comes to mind, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Similar to proactively preparing your pool for a storm, Sutro pool monitor helps you by monitoring your water chemistry and alerting you with treatment recommendations before you find yourself battling cloudy green water.
Now, let’s take a look at some steps you can take to minimize the risk of a hurricane damaging your pool.
Hurricane Prep List for your Pool
Just like you have a list of things to do to get your home ready for a hurricane, you need to have a list for your pool and equipment as well. We all know that things go better when we have a list!Take the necessary steps you to minimize the risk of a hurricane damaging your pool
Insurance
Probably one of the most important steps you can take is to confirm with your insurance company that your pool is covered on your policy before hurricane season.
Trim trees and limbs
This one takes some lead time, but it can be very helpful if you have large trees or dead limbs near your pool or equipment. Although undesired, it may be better to sacrifice a tree or big limbs to prevent catastrophic damage to your home or pool and equipment.
Pool Chemicals
We typically don’t advise to keep extra pool chemicals such as acid and liquid chlorine stored, but in preparation for a hurricane you may want to consider buying some extra in case you expect to lose power and/or expect damage. Of course, be sure to store it safely and securely.
Store and secure loose items
This is an important step for many reasons. All of that nice patio furniture, the deck chairs, and the grill can become liabilities and cause damage to your property or even your neighbor’s property, so you want to put it away! Plus, you may need your grill to cook with if the power is out for any length of time. ***NEVER store furniture in your pool***
Do not drain the pool
Depending on your soil type and the type of pool you have, you could risk your pool floating.
Fences and gates
This is a tough one, if you are able to remove your pool fence then consider doing so to prevent damage. Of course, you need to consider the safety aspect as well, but if it’s damaged then chances are that it’s not going to be effective anyway.
Do not cover the pool
If you have an autocover you don’t want to cover the pool because debris could damage your cover.
Treat your water
This is a key step to prevent an algae outbreak during and after the storm. Make sure your water is balanced and bring the water to shock level before the storm. You can also consider using a non-copper based algaecide as an extra preventative as well.
Turn off gas and electricity to the pool
You want to do this to prevent the risk of a gas leak/fire or even end up emptying your pool dry if debris hits your equipment.
All of this may seem like a lot, but you may end up thanking yourself in the long run if you prevent some damage, or if you did have damage and it was minimized by taking a few steps to hedge your bet.
And remember, when the storm is over, the sun is out, and you have cleaned everything up, you must take steps to prevent algae outbreaks and maintain clean and clear water.
Sutro pool monitor helps you to be proactive on your water chemistry by testing free chlorine, total alkalinity, and pH multiple times per day and giving you recommendations on what to add and how much to add based on your favorite chemical brands.
We here at Sutro hope that you don’t experience severe storm damage, and even more importantly we want you to be healthy and safe so be sure that you take care of your safety above all else!