Clients often ask how long they can expect to use an outdoor pool in Wisconsin. Most people assume that they are lucky if they can use the pool from Memorial Day to Labor Day in our climate.
I used to cringe when I heard people say this but I had it all put into perspective about 20 years ago while attending an industry conference about 20 years ago. After spending time with other pool professionals from all over the country – New York, Florida, Texas, California, and Arizona, I learned that pool owners across the country use their pools about 20 weeks out of the year. In some climates, people don’t even use their pools during the hottest months because it’s just too hot. Wish we had that problem!
Most of our clients use their pools for around 16 weeks, starting around May 15th and ending around September 15th. To squeeze this much time out of your pool, we recommend opening at least 2 weeks early and then closing a few weeks later than you would usually think to.
We do have those clients who break the curve and use their pools well outside of these parameters. We regularly have clients who want the pool open as soon as it is thawed. In some cases they just would rather keep the pool open all year as long as it is not in danger of freezing. There have been years we have opened a pool the 1st week of March and had to break through a thin layer of ice to remove the winter plugs. On the other end of the spectrum we recently had a client that was swimming laps in January and finally decided to close the pool in early February!
Even though we feel like we have short summers, there are ways to get the most out of your pool and enjoy it as much as you can in the Midwest.