Cold water doesn’t just chill your pool—it changes how your salt system works. We break down what really happens when temperatures drop, why most cells throttle or shut off around 50 to 60 degrees, and how to keep water clear without burning through gear or cash. If you’ve ever wondered whether to pull the cell, which sanitizer to lean on, or how to set yourself up for an easy spring, this walkthrough gives you a step-by-step plan. We start with freeze protection and the simple move that pre...

Show Notes

Cold water doesn’t just chill your pool—it changes how your salt system works. We break down what really happens when temperatures drop, why most cells throttle or shut off around 50 to 60 degrees, and how to keep water clear without burning through gear or cash. If you’ve ever wondered whether to pull the cell, which sanitizer to lean on, or how to set yourself up for an easy spring, this walkthrough gives you a step-by-step plan.

We start with freeze protection and the simple move that prevents expensive damage: remove the cell and install a dummy cell when hard freezes or power outages are possible. From there, we map out a winter sanitizing strategy built around trichlor tablets in a floater—not the skimmer—to deliver slow, steady chlorine while topping up cyanuric acid. You’ll hear practical tablet dosing for 15,000 to 20,000 gallon pools, why cold water slows dissolution, and how a modest tablet plan can place your CYA near the 70 to 80 ppm sweet spot for salt systems once the sun returns.

When storms zero out your chlorine, we explain why liquid chlorine is the best fast-acting boost for salt pools in winter. Its byproduct is sodium, so you avoid adding calcium that can scale up your cell plates. As water warms into the 70s, we pivot to spring startup: don’t trust the cell’s own salinity reading, especially after a cold season. Use a temperature-compensating digital salinity meter from a reliable brand, clean the cell if needed, adjust salt in small steps, then retire the floater and let the generator take over. Heated pools? If you keep water in the 80s, your cell behaves like it’s summer and continues to produce.

Whether you keep your pool open year-round or weather the occasional deep freeze, you’ll leave with a clear plan: protect the cell, use tablets smartly, boost with liquid when needed, verify salt with your own meter, and hand production back to the generator at the right time. If this guide helped, follow the show, share it with a fellow pool owner, and leave a quick review to help others find it.

We walk through how cold w

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