How To Open Your Pool for Spring: Full Checklist

Pull from one short end, folding accordion-style. Have a second person help with covers larger than 16x32. Spread the cover on grass, hose it down on both sides, and let dry before folding for storage.

Remove anything floating before you start the equipment. Otherwise it ends up in the pump basket or filter immediately.

Most pools sit 4–8 inches below the skimmer at closing. Fill with a garden hose until water reaches the middle of the skimmer opening — that’s the right starting level.

Reinstall drain plugs in pump, filter, and heater. Reconnect the pressure gauge if it was removed. Replace any freeze plugs in returns and skimmer with eyeball fittings. Inspect every o-ring and replace any that are cracked or dry.

Fill the pump strainer pot through the lid. See our priming tutorial. Confirm the pump catches water within 90 seconds.

Let the pump circulate before you make any chemistry adjustments. Water has been stagnant for months — mixing first means your test readings are accurate.

Free chlorine, pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, cyanuric acid, and salt (if applicable). Use a liquid drop kit, not strips.

Alkalinity first (80–120 ppm). Then pH (7.4–7.6). Then calcium hardness (200–400 ppm). Then stabilizer (30–50 ppm for chlorine pools, 60–80 for salt). Last: shock to 10–15 ppm free chlorine.

Walls, floor, tile line. Any algae that bloomed under the cover gets disrupted into the water column where shock can kill it.

Polymer clarifier helps your filter capture the fine debris that’s stirred up by brushing. Run pump continuously until water is clear, then settle into normal run schedule.