Hello – I was a victim of the recent winter storm that came through Texas.
Once power went out I winterized my pool equipment based on some instructions our pool builder provided. The pumps were running up until the point that power went out in the middle of the night and then I winterized about 6 hours later. A few days later when it warmed up and everything thawed out I got everything put back together, repaired a busted pipe, and started powering things up. My in-floor cleaner and water feature pumps started up without any issues. However, when I started up my filter pump water started spraying out of my heater, a lot of it. I did fail to open up the air release valve on my filter as the pump was priming up. I’m a newer pool owner and have never had to winterize given I’m in Texas. Lesson learned.
My question is:
Is it possible that the pool heater survived the freeze and only broke because I failed to open up the air release valve? Do you normally see breaks like this at the heater water intake due to freezing, an over-pressurized system, or both?
I’d think that if the system was going to break somewhere due to being over-pressurized, it would be the filter, pump lid, or a pvc pipe somewhere, rather than breaking at the heater water intake. I’ve attached a few pictures showing where it broke at the heater.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
It wasn’t likely a pressure issue that caused the break, but rather water in the plumbing/in that fitting that froze/expanded and caused a crack. Since a pool system is supposed to be closed, with no air getting into the lines, if the power goes out, air wouldn’t allow water to move/drain/run to lower levels it would stop where it was and remain there until the pump started again, or air was introduced to the system either through opening something or opening air relief valves etc.
If the power went out for 6 hours during a deep cold snap, the amount of water trapped in the intake manifold on a heater is susceptible to freezing – it’s not a large volume of water, it’s above ground and easily chilled/frozen.
The damage had already been done overnight when it froze. It had nothing to do with you not opening the air relief valve when you powered things back on.