Pool: Can I Skip A Year Of Opening?

[Park]

Hi all,

Rookie pool owner with an inground pool in NYC area (~20k gal. viynl) with a few questions regarding skipping a year of opening pool. Last year, we opened the pool with the help of vendor, who closed it.

As both my wife and I wont be home much during summer (due to work related travel) i want to skip a season of opening my pool, and was interested if people can help me with 3 questions:

1) Will this be okay? I called the vendor who took care of my pool last year and they said its not a good idea (they may just want to be paid). Just wanted some thoughts as I hate to turn over money for a unused pool.

2) As I won't be vacumming if I don't open the pool, do I need to shock it a few (say once a month) over the summer?

3) I peeked into the cover an my water level is pretty high. As I dont have the setup to do a backwash and drain it, would someone recommend how i should go about (or do i even have to) drain the pool down a bit. I was thinking of going to home depot to buy a standard water pump, would this help?

Thanks in advance to all those responding.

[BillinKingstonSprings]

Hi all,

Rookie pool owner with an inground pool in NYC area (~20k gal. viynl) with a few questions regarding skipping a year of opening pool. Last year, we opened the pool with the help of vendor, who closed it.

As both my wife and I wont be home much during summer (due to work related travel) i want to skip a season of opening my pool, and was interested if people can help me with 3 questions:

1) Will this be okay? I called the vendor who took care of my pool last year and they said its not a good idea (they may just want to be paid). Just wanted some thoughts as I hate to turn over money for a unused pool.

2) As I won't be vacumming if I don't open the pool, do I need to shock it a few (say once a month) over the summer?

3) I peeked into the cover an my water level is pretty high. As I dont have the setup to do a backwash and drain it, would someone recommend how i should go about (or do i even have to) drain the pool down a bit. I was thinking of going to home depot to buy a standard water pump, would this help?

Thanks in advance to all those responding.

I am sure one of the pro's here will have a better answer but here is my take on it. I personally don't see it as a good idea. First your pool is going to create an incredible amount of algae. Your water will basically sour and will turn into a pond with creatures mosquito's ect.. living in your back yard. Your liner or what ever kind of pool you have will also suffer from the pool water imbalance. It is difficult enough opening a pool after a single winter much less two with a hot summer in between. I don't see it as a good idea at all but that is my personal opinion. I think I would consider filling in the pool and doing away with it altogether before I would have that kind of problem sitting in my backyard. Just my thoughts!!