Add-on coverage
Freeze & Vacation Watch.
Two situations put a Central Texas pool at real risk: a hard freeze and a week with nobody home. This is an extra set of eyes for both.
How freeze protection actually behaves
Worth understanding before you worry about it.
If your system has freeze protection, it typically kicks the pump on somewhere around 37 to 40 degrees, whatever the panel or timer is set to. So on most cold nights here, the system takes care of itself and there's nothing for you to do. The pump runs, the water keeps moving, and morning arrives without incident.
The scenario that causes damage isn't cold weather — it's cold weather plus a power outage. Freeze protection can't help when there's no power to run the pump. If an outage stretches out during a hard freeze, water sitting still in the pump, filter, and heater is what cracks housings and splits plumbing.
That's why the walkthrough matters more than the alarm. You'll be shown where your drain plugs are, how to drain the pump, filter, and heater, and how to tell when it's worth doing — so if the power goes out at 11pm you already know the answer.
Water features are where winter leaks start
The most common freeze damage in this area isn't the pool — it's everything plumbed above it.
Why they freeze first
Raised spas, spillways, sheer descents, bubblers, and rock waterfalls hold water in shallow plumbing above the waterline, surrounded by cold air on several sides and often sitting still while the main pool circulates. That's the water that turns to ice and splits a fitting.
What it costs you later
The damage rarely shows in January. It shows in April, as a raised spa that won't hold level overnight, a wet spot that never dries, or chemistry that never settles because the pool is being diluted by the auto-fill every day.
The setting most pools get wrong
Freeze mode often turns the main pump and nothing else. If your feature valve doesn't actuate with it, that plumbing sits still through the whole freeze. That's verified and corrected during the watch, or the feature is drained ahead of the front.
Catching a leak early
Water level, auto-fill behavior, and wet spots get watched on every regular visit. Visible wet-side leaks are repaired in house; pressure testing and locating a leak under the shell or deck goes to a leak detection specialist, with my notes so they aren't starting from zero.
What the watch includes
Scheduled ahead of a forecast freeze, or booked for the days you're away.
- Freeze mode verified and tested on your automation or timer before the season
- Drain plug locations identified and photographed for your records
- A written outage plan for your specific equipment pad
- An on-site check during or after a hard freeze event
- Water features and spa lines checked, run, or drained ahead of a hard freeze
- Water level checked so the skimmer isn't pulling air, and tracked for signs of a leak
- Pump, filter, heater, and unions inspected for cracks, drips, or lost prime
- Vacation checks between regular visits, with photos each time
- A call or text with what was found, not just a checkmark
Freeze events are unpredictable, so this is scheduled by forecast and by availability rather than sold as a guarantee. Weekly clients get first call.
Related reading
Everything here is also written up in the guide, free.
Get ahead of the first cold front
Ask about Freeze & Vacation Watch during your consultation, or add it any time before a forecast freeze.