I keep my equipment hooked up in the fall, adding bleach occasionally as necessary. When we start getting freezing temps at night, which is usually in November for us, I then drop the water level, shock the pool, take my pH up to around 7.9 and unhook equipment. Then I'm done for the winter. I do open up early -- probably in April. It gets hot early here. We can typically swim in early May. (I have not used polyquat for many years.)