How to Drain a Pool With a Garden Hose

Owning a pool adjacent to your house is quite costly now-a-days. If you want to make enough use of it to justify the cost, you need to maintain the pool regularly. Of course, this does not mean that you need to empty it every year and fill it with new water in the spring. But from time to time, maybe even after a few years of use, it is important to empty the pool to repair and maintain perfect hygiene. And for this, it’s best to educate yourself on how to drain a pool with a garden hose.

Hiring a professional pool maintainer for this service would cost you much more than doing it yourself. Therefore, in the following text, I will explain in detail how to drain a swimming pool with a garden hose yourself. When it’s the right time to empty it? And what are the right reasons for doing so? These all matter.

A garden hose comes in handy in quite a few ways while draining a pool. It can be used with a submersible pump to drain both an inground or an above ground pool. On the other hand, the garden hose can be used by itself to syphon out water out of an above-ground pool or drain water downhill from an inground pool. To know how to empty both types of pool, as well as how to syphon water out of a pool, read on!

What Are the Reasons for Draining a Pool?

Have you heard of TDS? It stands for Total Dissolved Solids. For years, they accumulate in the pool and make it difficult to establish a balance of chemicals in the water. You may even notice stains. This is the time when adding extra water purifying chemicals can’t help you.

That is why, I’d say you definitely need to empty the pool every 3-5 years. Of course, other circumstances might make you decide you need to drain pool water. If there is a higher concentration of Cyanuric acid in your pool, you will need to drain it, at least partially.

Then, after half-drying it, fill it with clean water and in this way, you will reduce the concentration of this acid in the water. Another reason to drain a pool is to repair or repaint the pool. Something like this is simply impossible to do without completely draining and drying out the pool.

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How to Drain Water From Pool Safely?

It is not always the time or place to drain the pool. Even with a small misstep, you can create great damage. Before you drain the pool, pay attention to these things. Check the regulations of your city regarding the drainage period of the pool. Some cities prohibit the discharge of water into storm drains.

What would be the right time to perform this task? It would be most ideal to do this in the spring or fall and thus avoid high temperatures that can cause damage to the pool. If you have lighting in your pool, remember to turn it off before you proceed with draining the pool. It is designed to work underwater, so if it stays on it can break down.

You also need to know how to drain a pool with a garden hose without accidentally causing it to pop out. If there is a high groundwater level on the ground where your pool is located, you should avoid total emptying of the pool. The reason for this is that it can cause your pool to pop out of the ground- I’m not even kidding! In that case, only partially empty it.

If your pool is made of fiberglass, also only partially dry it. This will prevent cracking or damaging the surface of the pool. We can conclude that it is much safer to only partially drain the pool if you are not sure that it is safe and allowed to drain it completely. Remember to turn off the pump in your pool before you start emptying the pool.

The Price of Draining the Pool

Before we get down to the nitty-gritty of how to empty a pool with a hose, let me get the financial talk out of the way. Time is money, so you first need to consider how long it will take you to finish draining the pool. It depends on the size of your pool, but it takes about 8 to 14 hours to empty it.

Filling the pool takes about that much more time. So during this endeavor, you should not move away from the house, more precisely from the pool, because in case something does not go according to plan, you must be ready to react quickly. That’s how to drain a pool with a garden hose safely and efficiently.

Don’t be surprised when you see a bigger water bill during the month, because you need a lot of water to fill the pool. You can prevent surprises by calculating how much it will cost with the help of a calculator that you can find on the Internet by multiplying the price of one gallon of water by the number of gallons needed to fill your pool.

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What Should You Never Do?

Although you may come across tips on the internet on how to empty a pool with the help of a pump, do not use this method. Although this method is possible, in the end, it will cost you much more than if you hired professionals. It’s better to learn how to drain a pool with a garden hose yourself. After you start the pump to draw water from the pool, at the very beginning it will go well.

However, when the water level falls below the skimmer, the pump will start to draw in air. When the pump is not cooled by water, it overheats. This can lead to pump failure. Because of this overheating, you will most likely have to buy a new pump which would be an additional and unnecessary expense.

So, avoid mistakes like this and save your money. You’re much better off learning how to drain pool with hose. Although most of these previous tips apply to in-ground pools, below I will write instructions for this type of pool, but also for those that are above ground.

How to Drain an Inground Pool With a Garden Hose

The first step in this process is to get a submersible pump and a long enough garden hose that will drain the water far enough away from the pool. You will place the pump at the very bottom of the pool in its central part. Make sure the power cord, as well as the pool draining hose, is long enough. When all of the above is set up properly, monitor the pool drainage process to avoid catastrophic flooding.

After a while, the water level in the pool will be very low, but it is not possible to completely dry the pool with a pump. No matter where you look, you really won’t find how to drain a pool with a garden hose completely in case of this kind of pool. You don’t have to worry about that bit of water, because the level of harmful substances will be very low in that amount of water.

At all times before and during pool drainage, take care of the groundwater below your pool. Give them an exit path so they don’t damage your pool. When painting and remodeling the pool, work quickly and then fill the pool. You can use several garden hoses for fast filling.

Keep an eye on when the water reaches the level to the middle of the skimmer. You have to stop at this point. After this, remove the garden hoses. Restart the pump at last. Now you can enjoy the benefits of the pool for many years only with regular maintenance.

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The Process of Draining the Above Ground Pool

There are two reasons why you could drain an above-ground pool. The first would be for the repair of the pool, and the second for its storage. Draining the pool for repair purposes is almost identical to draining an inground pool. However, in this case groundwater is not a cause of worry. Furthermore, the drainage of the pool in the case of storage is slightly different.

It is necessary to know how to drain a pool with a garden hose completely in this case. Use the submersible pump and garden hose the way I have mentioned already. Once the pump has drained all the water it can and you have a small amount of water left, you can remove it in one of three ways.

The first is to use a Shop-Vac vacuum with which you can suck out the rest of the water. Another option is to drain the water from the pool through the pool drain. And the last, very obvious option is to turn the pool over and empty it, if it is small enough to do so.

Once you have emptied it, you also need to dry it. You can use a leaf blower, towels or just sunlight to dry it. It is up to you to choose. And for the very end, you need to pack it as neatly as you can, so that it can safely welcome the next season. As in any other activity, practice leads to perfection.

How to Drain a Pool With a Garden Hose: More Tips

In case you don’t want to use a submersible pump, you can also use just a garden hose to syphon water out of your above ground pool. Now, how to syphon water out of a pool that’s above ground? Dip one end of the hose into the water that needs to be drained. Fasten the other end on a water tap nearby and run it. As soon as the hose fills up with water, detach this end from the tap and let it drain out the pool.

Never use your mouth to start the syphoning process. Trust me, that stale pool water doesn’t need to be anywhere near your mouth. I wanted to give you another piece of advice on how to drain a pool with garden hose. Some above ground pools have a drain valve, so the easiest way to empty them is to remove the cap from the drain valve and attach a garden hose to it.

Take the other end of the garden hose and place it into the place where the water should drain out. Be economical, so in case your pool water is negative for bacteria, water the yard with it or find some other socially responsible purpose for it. Finally, dry it completely, pack it and store it so that it is ready for next summer.

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Final Thoughts

If you use all the tips I have given you, you will practice how to drain a pool with a garden hose and save money. However, be careful in water consumption. Do not drain pool with hose unnecessarily and if it is not necessary, do not empty it completely. Be responsible for your home budget, but also the planet.