How to Store Pool Floats for Winter (What the Makers Actually Say)

Every website that answers this question gives you a confident list, and almost none of them can tell you where it came from. So we went to the people who make the floats. The surprise is how little they say. Most Intex floats ship with no manual at all, and the one Intex manual that covers storing a float is for a floating island. GoFloats publishes no care or storage instructions on its float listings or store policies; the listings describe the valve. SwimWays’ care text is two sentences long. Below is everything the makers actually wrote, what the vinyl itself does in cold and heat, and the parts nobody has tested, said out loud.

None of this depends on your pool type: floats from an in-ground pool and an above-ground pool are stored the same way. If you are closing the pool itself, start with closing an in-ground pool or closing an above-ground pool, then come back for the floats.

The checklist

1. Wash it while it is still inflated. Mild soap and water, a soft brush, then a thorough rinse with the hose. A long-time float owner on Trouble Free Pool washes hers inflated “so you can get all the crevices.” Get the sunscreen and body oil off: on vinyl, that film is food for mildew.
2. Dry it completely. Both sides, every seam, around the valve, and inside the fold of any pillow or headrest. Dry it in the sun for an afternoon if you like, then bring it in.
3. Check it while it is warm. Inflate it firm and leave it overnight. A float that is soft in the morning has a slow leak you want to find now, while the vinyl is soft enough to patch and you still remember which one it was.
4. Deflate and roll it loosely. No hard creases, no heavy things stacked on it.
5. Store it dark, dry and still. Out of the sun, away from sharp edges and pool chemicals, somewhere nobody has to dig it out while it is freezing. Not in the attic.
6. In spring, warm it up before you unroll it. Bring it inside and leave it for a day before you unroll it.

What the makers actually say

We read the care and storage instructions on each maker’s own site, manual or archived product page. Every quote below is word for word.

Read across the rows and three things are settled: clean it, dry it completely, keep it out of the sun. Every maker that says anything says those. Then they split on three questions.

The three arguments, settled as far as the evidence goes

Bleach: don’t, unless your float’s maker says so

Jasonwell’s own blog tells you to wash its floats in a bleach solution. Big Joe’s own care page tells you to keep bleach off its floats because it “can damage the material.” The vinyl industry is split the same way. Makers of marine upholstery vinyl approve diluted bleach on vinyl they have specifically rated for it, and that vinyl is built for it: OMNOVA, for one, puts an antimicrobial agent in all of its marine upholstery. No pool float maker we read says its vinyl has one.

So there is no universal answer, and nobody has published a test on float vinyl. Our call: mild soap and water is the step every maker agrees on, so use that. Use bleach only on a float whose own maker tells you to. Never use solvents, citrus cleaners or anything oily on vinyl, and never wax it. Vinyl makers warn that these pull the plasticizer out of the vinyl, which is what keeps it soft.

Sealed tote or breathable bag: pick the risk you have more of

FUNBOY says airtight containers. Big Joe’s bean-float guidance says a dry, well-ventilated spot. Both are right about their own risk.

• Mice chew vinyl. University of Nebraska Extension lists vinyl and plastic among the materials rats and mice gnaw through, and NRS, which makes inflatable rafts, warns: “Rodents can wreak havoc with a stored inflatable. For some reason they like to burrow into a folded boat, which can cause irreparable damage.” Sea Eagle’s own answer for a shed is a plastic storage box “with a tight lid,” to stop mice “chewing a big hole in your boat.” If you store floats in a shed, a barn or anywhere mice get into, a lidded tote wins.
• Damp vinyl in a sealed box grows mildew. Mildew needs moisture, something to feed on, warmth and spores. Vinyl maker OMNOVA puts it plainly: “The element easiest to control is moisture.” A tote only protects a float that went in completely dry.

If you can’t be sure it is bone dry, use a breathable bag in a clean indoor space. If you have mice, dry it until you are sure, then seal it.

The cold garage: the cold isn’t the danger, moving the float while it’s cold is

Half the internet says a cold garage cracks floats and half says it is fine. What the vinyl actually does settles most of it.

Flexible vinyl stays soft because of an added plasticizer, and it stiffens as it gets colder. A brittleness test measures the temperature where the vinyl cracks when it is struck or bent, not damage from sitting cold. Where that point falls depends entirely on the plasticizer. In one plasticizer maker’s own lab tables (Hallstar), flexible vinyl compounds go brittle anywhere from about 45°F (7°C) down to about -69°F (-56°C). No float maker publishes the figure for its own float, so you cannot know yours.

The makers of heavier PVC inflatables handle it by not moving the boat while it’s cold. Sea Eagle says its unsupported PVC boats “can become rigid and sometimes brittle, so it’s always best to store them where a sudden impact is not possible and where unfolding them is not necessary.” Zodiac’s manual is the only one we found with a number: “If the boat is stored in a temperature inferior to 32°F (0°C), before unfolding, let it warm up for 12 hours at room temperature, 72°F (about 20°C).”

So a garage is fine if you treat it that way. Roll the float while it is warm and put it where it won’t get knocked or dug out in January. In spring, bring it inside and let it warm up before you unroll it. What has never been tested is whether a float left completely alone in a freezing garage comes to any harm. Nobody has published that test, so we won’t promise you it’s safe or tell you it isn’t.

The attic is the worse choice. Heat drives plasticizer out of vinyl, and vinyl that loses it gets harder and less stretchy. In the Florida Solar Energy Center’s 2001 summer test buildings, the attic under dark shingles averaged a daily peak of about 120°F. Nobody has measured how much one summer up there costs a float, but every bit of the chemistry points the wrong way.

By kind of float

• Inflatable vinyl (most loungers, rings, rafts and pool toys). The checklist above, all six steps. The seams and the valve are where water hides and where leaks start.
• Spring-frame floats (SwimWays Spring Float hammocks and recliners). SwimWays says to rinse off the salt and chlorine and deflate before folding. The spring frame then twists down into “3 small circles.” Make sure the mesh and fabric are dry too, not just the vinyl rings, and keep it out of the sun.
• Bean-filled floats (Big Joe Captain’s and similar). There is nothing to deflate, but there is a lot of fill to dry. Big Joe says to drain the float so “the float’s bean filling isn’t left waterlogged,” dry it, then store it in a “dry, well-ventilated storage area.” A shed, garage or bin is fine by Big Joe, as long as it is dry. Squeeze it before you put it away; if the fill still feels damp, it needs another sunny afternoon.
• Fabric-covered and mesh floats. These dry the slowest and are the ones most likely to grow mildew in a closed space, so they are the ones to keep in a breathable bag.

Shopping for a float that lasts? Our pool float showdown ranks them on what survives a season.

The Florida version

Every guide on this assumes freezing winters. Most Florida floats never see freezing, and they face a different enemy: heat and humidity.

• Mildew is the main risk. A float that goes away slightly damp into a hot, humid garage is ideal for mildew. Dry it longer than you think you need to, and favor a breathable bag over a sealed tote unless you have rodents.
• Heat is the other one, if the float stays packed into summer. A closed Florida garage or shed gets hot from spring on, so a float that sits in a bin out there into the next summer is sitting in that heat. An indoor closet beats both the garage and the attic.
• If you leave them out year-round instead, rinse them, keep them in the shade and wipe off mildew when it shows. Aqua Leisure, for one, tells you to store its floats with “no UV exposure to protect against sun damage,” and the sun is what a float left out never gets away from.

Do the October check

Here is the reason to inflate every float before you put it away. FUNBOY’s own refund policy covers defects only “within 15 days of order receipt” for orders from its store. A float you bought in May was out of that window by June. Nobody is going to replace it in April.

So the check is for you, not for a claim. Inflate each float firm while the weather is still warm and leave it overnight. If it is soft in the morning, find the leak with soapy water, mark it, and patch it now, with the repair patch that came with the float if it had one. Vinyl is easier to work with warm. If the leak runs along a seam instead of a pinhole, decide now whether that float is worth the space in the bin.

Mildew that is already there

• Grey, green or black spots that wipe off are surface mildew. Wash with mild soap and a soft brush, rinse, and dry completely before storing.
• A pink or rosy stain that won’t come out is something else. OMNOVA’s technical bulletin describes it as a bacterial dye that dissolves into the plasticizer, and says “this stain cannot be removed by washing.” It is permanent. The float may still hold air fine; it just won’t look new again.
• Left long enough, some molds can actually feed on the plasticizer and degrade plasticized PVC. That was measured over months of outdoor exposure, not one winter, but it is one more reason to store floats completely dry.

What nobody has tested

We’d rather tell you than make it up.

• A safe storage temperature. You will see “store between 50°F and 75°F” and similar ranges all over the web. No float maker publishes one, and none of those ranges comes from a test.
• Talc, baby powder or cornstarch. Vinyl can stick to itself in storage, but nobody has tested dusting a float, and no float maker we read recommends it. Cornstarch is organic, and organic residue is exactly what mildew feeds on.
• Vacuum-seal bags. FUNBOY suggests them. Nobody has tested what squeezing a folded float flat for months does to it, and a sealed bag around anything damp traps the damp in.
• Folding versus rolling. The inflatable-boat makers prefer loose rolls and changing the fold line, and it’s sensible, but none of them cites a test.

Where to keep them

How you store a float is this page. What to keep it in is a different question, and we ranked the answers: mesh bags, rolling bins, and a wall rack, in our pool float storage showdown. For a deck box big enough for the whole summer pile, see pool storage.