How to Drain Your Swimming Pool

I've had my pool for 3.5 years now. I had purchased my home which included a 10,000 gallon in ground pool. At first I was overwhelmed with all the things that I learned about maintaining a pool so I just had a pool cleaning company handle my pool maintenance. Once I became acquainted with my pool and how it worked, I started to maintain it myself. This saved me roughly $100 a month.

Part of your job in maintaining your own pool is to know when and why to drain it. You should drain your pool every 3 years in order to start with fresh water and fresh chemicals. This will make your chemicals last longer and you don't have to spend money to add more chemicals as often. It's not difficult or costly at all to do the draining yourself. I'll help you through it. Just keep reading...

You can rent a submersible sump pump like the one in the photo at your local hardware store. Some Home Depots have a tool rental center where you can pick these things up at a cost of $35 per 24 hours. Make sure to also pick up 2 fifty foot hoses along with the sump pumps. The hoses will be next to the sump pumps.

Your old pool water should be sent to the sewer systems. It is illegal to dump water onto your streets. There are several locations for a sewer port around your house. The one located in the photo is located at the side of my house near the driveway.

Connect one end of the hose that came with your sump pump to the sump pump and the other end to the sewer port. Try to keep the hose as straight as possible or else the water will not flow all the way and get stuck in the hose.

Drop the sump pump into your pool at the deepest level. There should be a rope so you can let the pump into the pool slowly. There's an electrical plug on the pump so just plug that into an electrical outlet on the side of your house near your pool.

You will hear the pump start running and the water will immediately fill the hose. *Tip* As the water is filling the hose, it will twist the hose and create areas of blockage for the water. Make sure to straighten out the hose so that the water flows without restriction.

My pool is 10,500 gallons and it took 7 hours to completely drain. Yours will take longer to drain if it's larger. DO NOT LEAVE THE SUMP PUMP RUNNING OVERNIGHT. You don't want to keep the pump running after the pool is drained or else it will overheat.

Make sure to fill the pool as soon as possible. Do not leave it empty otherwise underground water pressure may distort your pool and make it crack.