PLANO, Texas — One day after winter weather hit North Texas, security footage captured pool equipment exploding just as a homeowner turned away.
Terry Roden lives in Plano and shared some surveillance video showing his pump exploding up into the sky. It happened on Sunday as freezing temperatures arrived in the North Texas area.
Roden said his freeze stat, which is a temperature-sensing device that prevents coils from freezing, didn't kick into his pool equipment the night before the explosion.
So, the following morning, Roden said he picked up an industrial heater and set it near the pump. Once it thawed out, Roden turned on the pump. Roden said it then spooled up, causing the top of his filter pod to break loose and cause the explosion seen in the video.
"It spooled up, and then the top of my filter pod broke loose and looked like Elon Musk launched a rocket from my house," Roden posted on X.
Jim Mannering is co-owner of Blue Fire Pool and Outdoor Living and said there was likely water still frozen in Terry's filter, which caused it to crack. Terry turned the filter on before realizing there was still frozen water, he said, which built the pressure up.
"It’s a pressurized system," Mannering said of pool filters.
Mannering not only received calls about other cracked filters but also about frozen waterfalls, frozen pumps, and cracked pipes.
The best way to prevent a crack or freeze, he said, is to turn off all your secondary pumps in advance of cold weather. If you didn’t do that, and now your pumps have frozen, drain them ASAP.
"Flip your breakers off, release all the pressure, open [the filter up,] unthread the plugs."