Experts say you should drain your pool every 3 years at the most. Even though you may put chemicals in your pool to make it safe for swimming, the pool water will lose its effectiveness in working with the chemicals over time.

If the thought of draining your swimming pool seems like a big task, don’t worry.

It may seem like a lot of water to move but you won’t have to sit there and monitor it the whole time.

All you need is something called a submersible sump pump. This is a device that you can rent at your local hardware store. By draining the pool yourself, you’ll save at least $100 by not hiring a pool service company.

Once you have a hold of a pump, connect the pump to your sewage drain hole. There should be several places that you can find these openings. The sewer ports are covered by a round plastic cap and usually found next to your house.

Connect the hose that comes with the sump pump from the pump to the sewer port. Then lower the pump into the deepest section of your pool and turn it on. The pump will immediately starting pumping water into the hose and into your sewer port where the city can reuse it.

It should take several hours to empty your pool. Our pool is 10,500 gallons and it took 7 hours. Do not let the pump run over night because you’ll want to turn it off when the pool is empty. You don’t want to fry the thing.

When the pool is empty, make sure to fill it up as soon as you can. An empty pool could become distorted from the pressure of the groundwater surrounding the pool.

That’s pretty much it. Easy enough right?