Inground pools are known to be very hard to drain. That’s why we decided to make this short guide on how to drain an inground pool the easiest way possible.
Draining a pool can be a pretty tough job because it takes really long to do. It’s a pretty tough job that will take you more than 10 hours if you do it the traditional way.
Of course, we want to do things the easier way which is why we created a short guide on how to drain an inground pool with ease.
This guide will show you that draining an inground concrete pool doesn’t have to be such a drag.
All you need to do is follow our easy steps:
Contents
Is It Safe To Drain My Pool?
Before we start, there’s this little issue that we’d like to clear up first. A lot of pool owners have a concern as to whether it is actually safe to drain the pool or not.
Well, most pool experts will tell you that it is risky business to drain your pool. However, there are going to be times when you’ll need to do it anyway so you might as well do it right.
The first thing to take note of is that pool draining is dangerous depending on the material of your pool. You see, when you drain your pool, it will face hydrostatic pressure which will push some force on the pool wall and floor. This force will damage your pool walls.
So, if your pool walls or floors are not that strong then hydrostatic pressure may damage it. But if it’s made out of strong material like concrete, then draining shouldn’t be a problem.
Now, if your pool is made out of vinyl material, then you need to avoid pool draining as a whole because the pressure will kill the material. If your pool is made out of fiberglass, then you can drain the pool but not as often.
How To Drain an Inground Pool With The Main Drain
Now that you know the risks of draining your pool, it’s now time to learn the steps of draining an inground pool the right way and more importantly, the easy way.
In this guide, we have two ways on how to deal with pool draining depending on your drain and valve. So just follow the steps that match your situation.
In any case, let’s get started:
1. Open Up The Main Drain
This guide’s method will deal with how to drain an inground pool with main drain. That said, you must first separate the main drain from the skimmer valve.
From there, you need to close the skimmer valve and open up the main drain.
2. Turn On The Pump
The next thing to do is to turn on the pump. But before you do that, you must first set the filter multiport valve in the Recirculate mode. Then, roll out the backwash hose and turn on the pump. After that, you can just leave the pool to pump itself.
Eventually, the pool will drain until there’s only 6 inches of water left. From there, the regular pump won’t be able to take water out anymore. For that purpose, you need to use a small cover pump to drain out the remaining water.
Those are the steps to drain your pool if your skimmer valve and the main drain are separated. But what if they are connected to each other?
Then you follow these steps:
1. Plug The Top Of The Skimmer
In order to do this step, you need to use a threaded plug or expansion plug with an o-ring to plug the top of the skimmer.
2. Pump The Pool
Once the skimmer is plugged with the expansion, you can turn on the pump and completely drain your pool.
Tips And Reminders
And there you have it– very simple steps to draining your pool quickly and easily.
Before we end and let you apply the techniques we’ve presented above, here are a few tips that you may want to take note of before you get started:
- As much as possible, drain your pool only every 5 years, especially if you have a fiberglass pool.
- If there is algae or other similar substance on the wall, use a hose to spray them down as the water lowers.
- Don’t drain your pool after heavy rains or storms.
- Don’t drain your pool in cold temperatures that range from 55 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
- If your skimmer and main drain are connected and there are two holes on the bottom of the skimmer, you may want to use a hose adapter.
Conclusion
The methods on how to drain an inground pool that we’ve mentioned above are the easiest ones that we can think of. They should be able to benefit all pool owners who don’t want to spend so much time on such a tedious process.
If you think our guide was helpful, let us know what other pool fixes you want to know about and we’ll give you the easiest ways to address them.
