How to Winterize and Store Your Water Fed Pole System, Pump, and DI Resin

One hard freeze can split a hose, crack a pump housing, and ruin a full cartridge of DI resin, turning a quiet off-season into an expensive spring. Water expands by roughly 9% as it freezes, and every trapped pocket inside your pump, filters, and lines becomes a wedge working against the plastic and seals around it.

This is a maintenance guide for professional window and solar panel cleaners shutting a water fed pole system down for the cold months. Work through it component by component and your pump, resin, battery, and poles should come back in spring ready to deliver spot-free water on day one.

Why Cold Weather Wrecks a Water Fed Pole System

Everything that makes a pure-water setup work is also what the cold attacks. The weak points are predictable:

• Pumps and valves. A diaphragm pump holds water in its chambers and check valves. When that water freezes and expands, it can crack the housing, warp the diaphragm, and blow out seals. This is a common winter failure and an expensive one to replace.
• Hoses and fittings. Trapped water in microbore pole hose, feed line, and quick-connects freezes into a plug that splits the line or pops a fitting.
• DI resin. Deionization resin lives as moist beads. If it freezes, the water inside each bead expands and cracks it; cracked beads lose capacity. Letting resin dry out fully does the same kind of damage from the other direction.
• Batteries. A battery left deeply discharged in the cold can be permanently damaged, and a discharged lead-acid battery can freeze and split its case.

None of this is dramatic while it is happening. It is quiet damage you discover on the first job of spring. A careful shutdown now prevents most of it.

When to Winterize

There are two different situations, and they call for different responses.

Overnight freezes during the season. If you are still working but nights drop below freezing, you do not need to tear the system down every evening. Bring the vulnerable parts indoors or into a heated space: the pump, battery, DI vessel or inline filter, and any hose that still holds water. A heated garage or the cab of a van with a small heater is enough.

End-of-season shutdown. Once you are done for the winter, do the full process below. The rule of thumb: if the storage space will sit at or below 32 F (0 C) for any stretch, assume every drop of trapped water will freeze and treat the system accordingly.

Dry storage beats damp storage in both cases. The goal is simple: no standing water anywhere in the system, resin kept moist but protected, and the battery stored charged and warm.

Step 1: Drain and Flush the Hoses, Pole, and Lines

Start by getting the water out of everything that moves water.

1. Shut off the pump and disconnect the pole from the feed line.
2. Open the pole's flow control and let the pole and brush drain fully. Lift and tilt the pole so water runs out of the sections and the brush jets rather than sitting in them.
3. Disconnect the feed hose and pole hose at both ends and drain them. Walking a hose from one end to the other pushes the last of the water out.
4. If you have an air compressor, a short, gentle blast through each hose clears the water a gravity drain leaves behind. Keep the pressure low; more on that in Step 2.

Drained hose stores best when coiled loosely and kept indoors. Hose left outside in a tight coil can trap water in the bends and crack at the kinks. Replacement feed lines, reels, and quick-connects live in water fed pole parts and accessories if you find a split when you drain down.

Step 2: Protect the Pump

The pump is where winter does the most damage, so it is worth doing right. You have two accepted methods.

Method A: blow it out with air. Disconnect the inlet and outlet, then push compressed air through the pump to clear the chambers and check valves. Keep the pressure low, within the limit your pump manufacturer specifies, because too much air can damage the diaphragm you are trying to protect.

Method B: run antifreeze through it. For storage in a space you cannot keep above freezing, draw non-toxic pink RV or marine antifreeze through the pump until it runs out the outlet. This coats the internal parts and mixes with any water you could not clear, lowering its freezing point.

Two rules on antifreeze that matter:

• Use only propylene glycol RV/marine antifreeze: the pink, non-toxic kind labeled safe for potable water systems. Never use automotive (ethylene glycol) antifreeze, which is toxic.
• Avoid ethanol-based RV antifreeze in a pump. Owners report that it can wear out seals and diaphragms over time. Check the label for propylene glycol.

The belt-and-suspenders approach is to blow the lines out first, then pull a little antifreeze through the pump and fittings. Pump seals, diaphragms, and valves are in water pumping tank parts and accessories when a spring teardown turns up wear, and complete water tanks and pumps are there if a pump did not survive a missed winter.

Step 3: Store the DI Resin and Filters

DI resin is a consumable, but freezing or drying it out throws away capacity you paid for. Two things damage it: freezing (water inside the beads expands and cracks them, which cuts capacity) and drying out (dried resin can lose capacity and may not fully recover). Winter storage is about avoiding both.

• Keep it moist and sealed. Leave your DI resin in its vessel or cartridge with water in it, or seal loose resin in an airtight bag or container. Do not store it open to the air.
• Keep it from freezing and from cooking. Purolite recommends storing resin above 32 F (0 C) and below 104 F (40 C), and LG Water Solutions advises against storing it above 122 F (50 C), which can dry out the beads. A heated garage, a utility closet, or a shelf indoors is ideal. Do not leave the DI vessel in an unheated van or shed over winter.
• If you cannot keep it above freezing, check the resin manufacturer guidance before choosing a storage method.
• Watch the shelf life. Suppliers such as Bulk Reef Supply rate sealed, unopened mixed-bed DI resin at about two years, and resin begins to deplete once it is exposed to air, so expect opened or in-use resin to last less time. If your resin was already near the end of its life or your inline filter was reading high on TDS before shutdown, winter is a sensible time to plan a fresh fill rather than nurse old resin.

A color-changing DI filter makes the spring check easy: the resin tells you at a glance whether it still has life. Spare cartridges, housings, and resin refills are in water filter and DI resin tank parts.

If you run an RO/DI system, apply the same no-freeze rule to the RO membrane and do not let it dry out. Membranes have their own storage and preservative guidance, so follow your manufacturer's instructions for off-season layup rather than simply draining and forgetting it.

Step 4: Winterize the Water Tank

A rolling or van-mounted water tank holds the most water, so it is the biggest freeze liability if you leave it full.

1. Drain the tank completely through its lowest drain point. Tip or angle it so the last of the water runs out rather than pooling in the base.
2. Leave the drain and any valves open during storage so condensation cannot collect and freeze in a closed space.
3. Pull the pickup line and inline strainer and drain them with the pump in Step 2.
4. For a tank stored somewhere that will freeze, a small amount of pink propylene glycol RV antifreeze poured in and drawn through the pickup and pump protects the fittings water alone cannot reach. Flush it out in spring before the water reaches the DI resin.

Wipe the inside dry if you can reach it, and leave the lid cracked or off so it airs out instead of growing a film over winter. Replacement strainers, float valves, and pickup fittings are in water pumping tank parts and accessories.

Step 5: Care for the Battery and Pump Controller

Most pole pumps run off a 12V battery, and how you store it depends on the chemistry.

Lithium (LiFePO4), the common choice today:

• Charge it to a healthy level before storage. A well-charged lithium battery rides out winter well, and a stored charge protects it from drifting so low the battery management system can no longer wake it.
• Disconnect it from the pump and controller so parasitic draw does not slowly drain it. LiFePO4 self-discharges slowly, about 2–3% per month, so a disconnected, charged battery needs little attention. Check its charge every month or two, or at the interval your battery manufacturer specifies.
• Never charge a lithium battery when it is below freezing (32 F / 0 C). Charging a frozen cell causes lithium plating and permanent damage. Most quality batteries have a BMS that blocks this, but do not rely on it. Bring the battery somewhere above freezing before you charge it.
• Store it warm if you can. An insulated box or a heated space keeps it stable; a shelf indoors is better than a cold van.

Lead-acid (AGM or flooded): keep it above 50% state of charge all winter and top it up periodically. A lead-acid battery drawn well below 50% can freeze and split its case. Unlike lithium, lead-acid can accept a charge in the cold, but do not charge one that has frozen solid.

Store the pump controller indoors with the battery, dry and away from damp. Chargers, controllers, and wiring are in water pumping tank parts and accessories.

Step 6: Clean and Store the Pole, Brush, and Jets

The pole itself is not freeze-sensitive the way water-filled parts are, but the off-season is the right time to clean and check it so it is job-ready in spring.

• Flush and dry the pole. Rinse any mineral residue out of the sections, wipe down a carbon fiber pole or aluminum pole, and let it dry fully before storage so clamps and internals do not sit damp.
• Check the clamps and adapters. Winter is a good time to catch worn anti-spin clamps, loose gooseneck fittings, or a tired hose adapter before they cost you a day mid-season.
• Clean the brush and jets. Rinse the brush, clear the pencil jets of any grit or mineral buildup, and check the bristles. Clogged jets are a common cause of poor rinsing, and they are easy to overlook until the first job back.
• Store flat and supported. Keep the pole indoors, laid flat or hung, out of the way of anything that could lean on it or kink the internal hose.

Store drained hoses coiled loosely alongside it. Replacement brushes, jets, clamps, and adapters are in water fed pole parts and accessories.

Spring Startup Checklist

Coming back is mostly the reverse of shutdown, with a couple of checks that protect your first few jobs.

1. Reconnect the battery and give it a full charge once it is above freezing.
2. Reconnect the pump, tank, and lines, and flush clean water through the whole system to clear any antifreeze and knock loose any film.
3. Run water through the DI resin before you trust it, then check your output with a TDS meter. You want it reading at or near zero.
4. If the resin reads high or a color-changing cartridge has turned, refill or replace it before the first job rather than after a callback for spots.
5. Pressure-check for leaks at every fitting you broke apart in the fall, and confirm the pole and jets flow clean.

If you are rebuilding or upgrading a setup over the off-season, the solar and window cleaning packages bundle poles, tanks, and filtration so you start spring on a dialed-in system.

References

• LG Chem (LG Water Solutions), Ion Exchange Resins: Long-term Storage, QuantumPure IX Technical Service Bulletin, 2025, lgwatersolutions.com
• Bulk Reef Supply, BRS Pre-Packed Deionization Resin product page (sealed-bag shelf life), bulkreefsupply.com
• Purolite, The Storage, Transportation and Preconditioning of Ion Exchange Resins, purolite.com
• Roadsurfer, How to Winterize an RV (propylene glycol and blow-out methods), 2025, roadsurfer.com
• The RV Geeks, How to Store Lithium RV Batteries for Winter, 2025, thervgeeks.com
• Bioenno Power, Essential Battery Maintenance Tips for Fall and Winter Storage, 2025, bioennopower.com
• Battle Born Batteries, How to Winterize and Store LiFePO4 Batteries, battlebornbatteries.com