Winterizing Chemicals Needed?

[Steveromo]

Last year (my first as a pool owner) I payed to have my pool store winterize. I watched carefully and wanted to do it mysef for winters after that. They added a bottle of chemicals just before covering (the water level had already been lowered and the pump shut off.) I followed their steps exactly... but the bottle of "Winterizer" from the store says to add to pool and let the filter run for 48hours before covering. It's too late for that!! The water has been drained to below skimmer and the pump is disconnected! My question is: Can I still add the chemicals and stir the water manually? Or should I not add anything and just cover?

12x24 AG 6700G

[PoolDoc]

+ "Winterizing" chemicals are just "summerizing" chemicals with different labels and higher price tags.
+ You can't mix chemicals by stirring, unless you've got a long boat paddle, strong shoulders, and a lot of time. You *can* carefully premix with warm water, and pour around the pool.
+ Regardless, cover now, adjust later. If you leave an un-circulated pool uncovered long -- like 2 - 3 days -- you're gonna get a swamp!

[Steveromo]

Thanks for the reply. I did cover it already. But I can remove it for a few hours to add winterizing solution and stir the water if I need to. I am leaning towards not adding anything and doing a test/check every few weeks over the winter. (I distinctly remember the tech last fall pouring a gallon container of something into the pool just before covering it, so that's what I was going to do also. Now I'm not sure.) I will post later if any test strip results are troublesome. Thanks, again!

[Watermom]

Worst case scenario is opening to a green pool but that can be cleaned up pretty easily with a lot of bleach.