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I live in temperate climate (Northern California) and have an 40 year old outdoor gunite pool. Currently we have a pool pump running 24/7 and use a service to maintain chemical balance weekly.

I plan to have the pool acid-washed and refaced in about 6 months and won't use it before that. Do I need to keep the pool pump running or continue with ph maintenance until repairs? If so, why?

Thanks!

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    Get on Google Earth, roll it back to about 2009 and scroll around your area. See any green pools? They were a big thing back then, caused by foreclosures where people walked away and didn't maintain their pools. Mosquito breeding grounds, the cities acually had to fly aircraft around looking for them, and intervene.
    – Harper - Reinstate Ukraine
    Jan 10, 2017 at 16:53
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    Nearby municipalities have restricted filling of new pools with potable water. There might be a way to sell your current water now.
    – Aloysius Defenestrate
    Jan 10, 2017 at 17:22
  • If the pump has a timer you can reduce the amount of electricity by scheduling. How much? Hard to answer.. Sunlight burns off chlorine. Is it a salt water pool with chlorine generator? Or are you manually chlorinating? Do you have a cover? All are factors on how much to reduce pump time.
    – Tyson
    Jan 11, 2017 at 19:56

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Your best bet would be to drain the pool, flush your plumbing and then blow it out. Then leave your drain open for rain, etc... Resurfacing your pool with algae or other nasty stuff would require more steps to remove then first to make a clean surface.

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6 months is a long time to go without chemical maintenance. You will end up with an algae pond if there is any water in it at all, and that includes rain.

However, if you are going to completely reface the pool then it won't matter.

But algae could get into the plumbing and pumps so they will need to be flushed, dried, and capped off.

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To avoid breeding mosquitoes, you need to keep it chlorinated. To keep the chlorine from burning off too quickly, you need to keep it filtered.

Or you could try stocking it with fish that will eat the skeeter larvae, I suppose. It is very unclear the health department will approve that or whether anyone has studied it, but if you insist, that would be worth investigating. Of course that may cost more than normal pool maintenance does, and you would have to deal with wildlife hunting your fish.

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