Draining A Vinyl Liner Pool

If you have an above ground pool with a vinyl pool liner drain the pool to about 1 inch below the bottom of the skimmer mouth.

Draining a vinyl liner pool.

Older pools may not have been built structurally to hold back the weight of the dirt against it when the pool is drained which can then cause the walls to collapse. Do not drain a fiberglass or vinyl liner pool. You assume all responsibility for draining your own swimming pool. Your dealer or builder should have told their customer this but sometimes they don t and of course many people end up with a pool when they buy the house.

Even extremely dirty water in a vinyl liner pool is most often dealt with by partially draining and refilling versus draining completely. If you drain your pool you can cause your vinyl pool liner to shrink and upon refilling if the liner has lost its elasticity it can cause the liner to rip or tear. The water in the pool helps hold the liner into place. In addition your vinyl lined pool walls may not be strong enough to.

Fiberglass can float and vinyl liners typically stretch when exposed to direct sunlight. Draining a pool is a potential risky business for even gunite or plastered pools but it will usually be a disaster on a vinyl liner pool. It is very uncommon to drain a vinyl liner pool lower than about 12 of water covering the shallow end for general service or repair. The liner can also become hard and brittle.

The only thing keeping your liner attached to the pool wall is that the water pressure on the inside is greater than that on the outside. Once you refill a vinyl liner it will often have crinkles in it and never look the same. It s acceptable to drain the pool a few more inches below that if you live in an area that gets heavy precipitation during the winter months. The older the vinyl material is the more likely this is to happen.

If you drain your pool and the bottom is below the surface level of the water table then the water from outside with seep in under your liner and it ll appear to float up from the bottom.