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skating on the pool

May 26th, 2005 · 2 Comments

I have an inground gunite pool. It is 5 feet deep in the middle.
I am thinking about taking off the loop lock cover and skating on
it. It has been really cold the last week and the ice is solid.
Baring any safety concerns about falling through the ice and
drowning, do you think it will damage the pool if I skate on my
frozen pool?

Tags: pumps

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Neva Marjory // May 30, 2005 at 9:47 am

    When my pool used to freeze (before I began leaving the pump running
    all winter) it was sometimes thick enough to walk on, but experiments
    showed that the slab of ice (30ft by 14ft) would slowly sink, with
    water welling up around the sides onto the top of the ice if it was
    tried.
    One of my dogs (100lb) ran across it a couple of times, but I
    considered it very dangerous - both for him and for me.
    I can’t see that it would be likely to cause damage to walk on the
    pool ice, though I wouldn’t try it myself, and as you recognise,
    there are significant safety issues to consider.
    In any event, I wouldn’t let ice get that thick on my pool, in case
    expansion of the ice itself caused damage to the shell. I used to
    leave several half filled plastic bottles in the pool so that the ice
    could crush them, rather than - possibly - damage the pool.
    These days I leave the pump running, either full time, or night hours

    only, using a timeclock.
    Steve.

  • 2 evelyn_200 // May 31, 2005 at 8:15 am

    If someone wants to skate, why not just get plastic sheeting, some 2 x 4’s
    and fill it with a hose. It won’t cost much, and won’t ruin the pool

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