What Should I Do With My Pool While I Travel?

Leave the system running and have someone check on the pool. Balance the water and shock it the day before you leave, add a long duration algaecide, and set the pump timer to a normal daily cycle. The one thing you should not do is shut everything off and close the gate.

Still water in warm weather is a green pool waiting to happen, and recovering one costs far more in chemicals and time than keeping it running would have.

Prep the water before you go

Do this the day before departure, not a week out.

1. Test and correct total alkalinity into the 80 to 120 ppm range
2. Set pH at 7.4 to 7.6
3. Check cyanuric acid and bring it to 30 to 50 ppm so chlorine survives the sun
4. Shock the pool to a strong chlorine level
5. Add a long lasting polyquat or copper based algaecide rated for the length of your trip
6. Brush the walls, steps and shaded corners, then vacuum

Clean the filter and empty every basket, including the pump pot and any cleaner bag. A filter that is already halfway loaded will choke while you are gone.

Keep the pump running

Circulation is what keeps sanitizer distributed and stops algae from establishing. Set the timer for a normal run, typically eight hours in warm months and less in cool ones, and leave it alone.

Lower the water to the middle of the skimmer mouth so a heavy rain does not overflow it, but not so low that the skimmer sucks air and the pump loses prime. A pump running dry for two weeks is a burned out motor.

If you have a chlorinator or floating feeder, load it full. If you have a salt system, verify it is actually producing before you leave rather than assuming.

Have someone actually service it

This is the part people skip, and it is the part that matters. A tablet feeder and a timer will hold a pool for maybe a week in mild weather. Beyond that, someone needs to physically test the water, add chlorine, empty baskets and pull debris out.

For longer trips, weekly service is the answer. Whoever you use should have gate access, know where the breaker is, and have a way to reach you if the pump fails or a storm is coming. Ask them to send a note after each visit so you know it happened.

If a neighbor is helping instead, at minimum have them net debris, empty the skimmer basket and confirm the pump is running. Debris left on plaster stains it within days, and palm fronds and bougainvillea are the worst offenders.

Do not let it sit green

A pool that goes green while you are away is not just an expensive cleanup. Standing water breeds mosquitoes fast in warm weather, and in Monroe County a neglected pool can generate a nuisance complaint and a citation. Neighbors notice, and so does mosquito control.

Traveling from the Florida Keys

Two local realities shape this. First, storm season runs June through November, and if you travel during it you need a plan for someone to prep the pool if a system develops while you are gone. That means lowering the water a few inches, shocking it and shutting off the breaker, never draining it, since our high water table makes an empty shell a serious structural risk.

Second, many Keys homes are second homes or vacation rentals where the owner is away for months at a time. Our heat and UV do not let a pool coast. Water in the eighties with strong sun burns through chlorine in days, so the gap between “fine” and “green” here is much shorter than most visitors expect.

Set the timer, load the feeder and line up a real set of eyes on the pool, because the cost of a service visit is nothing next to a full green pool recovery.