How do I winterize my main drain line?

Do you have a main drain and you’re wondering what to do in the winter? We’ll show you how to winterize a main drain in this video.

4 thoughts on “How do I winterize my main drain line?

  1. I have what looks like the first example: My skimmer line and main drain line that both go into the pump but just one valve to open and close the line. I tried to blow out the lines yesterday with an air compressor and i saw some bubbles come out from the main drain and it just bubbled out of the skimmer but did not shoot out like a fountain and there is still water in the skimmer line. Was I supposed to close the valve first? Or do I feed air in and then close the valve and then continue to push air through? Also, do you have to blow out the suction first and then returns or does it not matter which order? I blew out the returns first and then tried to do the skimmer/main. Thank you!!

    1. So, for a plumbing setup that looks like the one pictured, you’d:

      At the diverter valve, push air through the pressure side of the system until air bubbles come out for a few seconds, then plug them.

      Blow out the skimmer liner through the valve plug line from the skimmer side.

      Blow out the main drain line, as shown in the video, and use the valve to shut down the line, trapping air.

  2. Is it sufficient to winterize an in ground pool by simply opening up the pump casing drain plug for the main pump, vacuum pump, waterfall pump and spa pump and draining the pump casing?

    1. Do you have 4 pumps on this body of water? if so, then you probably have a lot more stuff to do like clearing the lines, lowering the water level, plugging the skimmer, among other stuff. Just going by the fact you have 4 pumps I would say you have a more intricate setup than most, which means “simply” is not going to be apart of your vocabulary when describing your closing procedure.

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