Summary:
Every fall, some Long Island, NY pool owners make the same call: skip the closing this year, see what happens. Maybe it’s the cost. Maybe it’s the hassle. Maybe last year was fine and the odds feel good. Then March comes around, and the pump won’t turn on. The water looks like something grew in it over the winter—because something did. And the service tech is quoting a number that makes the closing fee look like pocket change.
We’ve been closing pools across Long Island, NY and Queens County since 2009. We’ve seen what a single winter does to an unwinterized pool, and we want you to understand the real stakes before you make that call.
What Pool Freeze Damage Actually Looks Like
The damage doesn’t happen gradually. It happens fast—often overnight—and you won’t know about it until spring. Water expands 9 to 10 percent in volume when it freezes. That doesn’t sound like much until you picture that expansion happening inside a PVC pipe, a pump housing, or a heat exchanger with nowhere to go.
The result is cracked pipes, split fittings, fractured filter tanks, and destroyed equipment—all of it invisible through the winter months, all of it waiting for you when you try to open the pool. The delayed discovery is part of what makes this so frustrating. You don’t get a warning. You get a bill.
How Much Does Pool Freeze Damage Cost to Repair?
This is where the math gets hard to argue with. A professional pool closing on Long Island, NY runs $250 to $500 for an inground pool and $150 to $300 for an above-ground pool. Those are real numbers. So is this one: freeze damage repairs typically run $1,500 to $3,000 when the pump, filter, heater, and underground lines all take a hit in the same winter.
And that’s assuming the damage is contained. If a buried pipe bursts and the repair requires excavating the deck, you’re looking at $2,000 or more for that line alone. A cracked heat exchanger in a gas pool heater—the most common freeze-related failure we see—costs $800 to $1,800 to repair. If the heater is beyond saving, full replacement can run $3,000 or higher. A new vinyl liner for an inground pool runs $3,000 to $4,000.
None of this is covered by homeowner’s insurance. That’s the part most people don’t find out until they’re already filing a claim. Freeze damage resulting from improper winterization is typically excluded from standard policies—which means every dollar of that repair bill comes directly out of your pocket.
The closing fee isn’t a cost. It’s the cheapest insurance policy you can buy for a piece of equipment that probably cost you tens of thousands of dollars to install. When you frame it that way, the decision isn’t really a decision at all.
Why Running the Pump All Winter Doesn't Protect Your Pool
This is one of the most common workarounds we hear about, and it’s one of the most dangerous. The logic makes sense on the surface—keep the water moving and it won’t freeze. But it only works until it doesn’t, and on Long Island, NY, “until it doesn’t” happens every single winter.
Nor’easters are part of life here. Power outages during winter storms are not unusual—they’re expected. When the power goes out for four, six, or ten hours during a night that drops to the single digits, the pump stops. The water in the lines sits still. And still water in unprotected plumbing freezes at exactly the same rate whether the pump was running an hour ago or not.
There’s also the question of the equipment itself. Running a pump continuously through a Long Island, NY winter puts wear on a system that was designed to be seasonally rested. You’re not protecting it—you’re aging it. And if a cold snap hits harder than expected, you’ve still got unprotected plumbing, an undrained filter, and a heater full of water that has nowhere to go when it expands.
The pump-running strategy is a bet. And Long Island winters don’t care about your odds.
Pool Type Matters: Above-Ground, Saltwater, and Heater-Equipped Pools
Not every pool faces the same risks when winter arrives, but every pool faces real ones. The specific vulnerabilities depend on what type of pool you have—and if you’re not accounting for those differences, even a partial winterization effort can leave the most expensive components exposed.
We work with inground Gunite, fiberglass, and vinyl liner pools across Nassau and Suffolk Counties, and we close plenty of above-ground pools in Queens County and throughout Long Island, NY. Each one has a different failure point when temperatures drop, and each one needs a closing process that accounts for that.
What Happens to an Above-Ground Pool That Isn't Winterized?
Above-ground pools are actually more vulnerable in certain ways than inground pools, and a lot of owners don’t realize that. The most serious risk is wall collapse. When water freezes inside an above-ground pool without a properly installed air pillow between the water surface and the cover, the expanding ice pushes outward against the pool walls. Those walls are designed to hold water pressure from the inside, not ice pressure from the top down. They can buckle inward, and when they do, the pool is a total loss.
An air pillow—installed correctly before the cover goes on—absorbs the expansion pressure and redistributes it so the walls aren’t taking the full force. It’s a straightforward step, but it has to be done right. A cover that’s too loose, improperly anchored, or installed without the pillow in the right position can still allow ice damage even if the pillow is technically present.
Queens County pool owners deal with this more than most, because above-ground pools are far more common in neighborhoods with smaller lots—Howard Beach, Bayside, Douglaston, Jamaica Estates. The pool might be smaller, but the damage potential is just as real. A collapsed above-ground pool isn’t a repair—it’s a replacement. And that cost lands entirely on you.
Beyond the walls, above-ground pools have the same plumbing and equipment vulnerabilities as inground pools. The pump, filter, and any heating equipment still need to be drained, blown out, and protected before the first freeze. Skipping winterization on an above-ground pool because it feels like a simpler setup is a mistake we see turn into expensive problems every spring.
Saltwater Pool Winterization: What's Different and Why It Matters
Saltwater pools have one critical winterization step that standard chlorine pools don’t—and it’s the one most DIYers miss entirely. The salt cell, also called the chlorinator, must be physically removed from the plumbing before the pool is closed for winter. If water remains inside the cell when temperatures drop, it freezes, and the cell cracks. Salt cells aren’t cheap to replace, and the corrosive nature of salt means any metal components left exposed through a Long Island, NY winter are also fighting accelerated deterioration on top of freeze risk.
This isn’t a minor detail. It’s the most expensive single component in a saltwater system, and it’s the first thing to go when winterization is skipped or done incompletely. We remove the cell, inspect it, and store it properly as part of every saltwater pool closing we do.
There’s also the broader chemistry picture. Saltwater pools need the same pre-closing balance as any other pool—pH in the right range, a shock treatment, algaecide added—but the salt system means the chemistry behaves a little differently going into winter. A pool closed with the chemistry off, whether it’s a saltwater system or a traditional chlorine pool, is going to fight you in the spring. Algae that winters over doesn’t stay dormant—it waits for the water to warm up and then blooms fast. Opening a pool with a pre-existing algae problem adds time, chemicals, and cost to what should be a straightforward spring startup.
Long Island, NY’s swim season is short. Roughly ten to fourteen weeks for most families. Every day you spend fighting a green pool in May or June is a day you’re not swimming. Proper winterization is what makes a clean, fast spring opening possible—and that’s worth something too.
When to Close Your Pool on Long Island—and Who to Call
The closing window on Long Island, NY runs mid-to-late October for most pools. Close too early and you lose swim time. Close too late and you’re gambling on a freeze event that Long Island—with roughly 107 days below freezing each year—will eventually deliver. The window is real, and it’s shorter than most people think.
Scheduling fills up fast. By early October, many service companies are already booked out. Waiting until you feel the first real cold snap usually means waiting too long.
If you have questions about your pool—inground or above-ground, saltwater or traditional, heater-equipped or not—we’re happy to talk through what closing looks like for your specific setup. JAS Aquatics has been serving Long Island, NY and Queens County since 2009, and we’ve closed enough pools through enough winters to know exactly what’s at stake when the process gets skipped or cut short. Reach out before the calendar makes the decision for you.
Questions about your pool?
Tell us what you need and a JAS Aquatics pool pro on Long Island will get back to you. Prefer to talk now? Call 631-239-8031.
