Swimming Pool question

[juddy]

A question on the skimmer box.

2 jets of water at one end of the pool push the water towards the box at the other end, this is the bos with a basket in it. My question is how much suction should they be in the box, mine seams to have very little, things are gathering in the basket, but I still have bits on the surface near the outside of the box, is this normal? should they be alot of sucking pressure on the skimmer?

[loanrangie]

On my pool the pressure is enough to pull the skimmer flap down to the stopper , its common for the floating debris to not always get drawn in.

[91ramjet]

Hi there.

people will quite often take the weir door off when the water level is low so as to keep the pump running. if your flap has been removed it will not draw water in the way it is supposed to.

[Old Farang]

It will depend on how the the plumbing is arranged. Does it have a separate vacuum line? What about a main drain? All the plumbing should go back to a manifold on the suction side of the pump(s), where there should be valves on each line coming from the pool.

Unless actually cleaning the pool the vacuum line should be closed, if it has a separate line. I recommend keeping the main drain partly open so that in the event that the water level drops below the skimmer it can still suck some water from there, but if it is full open then a lot of the pump suction will be from there, thereby bypassing the skimmer box.

[Hoges]

the floating fence/flap on the weir box is designed to float just below the surface such that just a cm or 2 of water should flow over it. This is so a thin layer of surface water in the vicinity of the weir is drawn rapidly into the weir thereby taking the floating debris with it. If the pressure gauge on the filter is in the OK region (i.e. the filter isn't clogged and require backwashing) then there should be adequte suction in the collection box. As other posters have advised, check the water level... it should be fairly pouring over a lip into the collection box.

One of the happiest days of my life when moving to Brisbane was finally selling our house which had a pool... no-one ever looks after a pool as carefully as the person who owns it:mad: ...enough said....

[juddy]

The water level is at the top of the box, so its full.theres no flappy door on the box. The pressure gauge is reading ok. Theres some stuff, floating on the surface, bugs, small leafs etc, and I would have thought these would have gone into the skimmer box, so the surface stays clean.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/12/120.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/12/121.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/12/122.jpg

[DEFENDERZOOK]

if the water level touches the top of the skimmer.....itll reduce the skimming effect.....

in the pics.....the level looks to be just below the top of the skimmer......but the skimmers usually taper in a bit......so it may still be touching the top of the skimmer box......

check and make sure its not touching the top.......thats all......everything else looks fine.......

[DEFENDERZOOK]

oh.....the flappy door speeds up the skimming action by closing off the bottom of the entrance to the skimmer box......it will open and shut as required according to water level and flow......

and it also helps with preventing the skimmer from sucking in air from water spiralling down just like in the plug hole of a bathtub........

if enough air gets into the pump it will stop it from pumping......which will cause the ceramic bearing to run dry and destroy itself........

yes.....i am speaking from experience.......and it was not much fun having to rebuild it all......

[juddy]

if the water level touches the top of the skimmer.....itll reduce the skimming effect.....

in the pics.....the level looks to be just below the top of the skimmer......but the skimmers usually taper in a bit......so it may still be touching the top of the skimmer box......

check and make sure its not touching the top.......thats all......everything else looks fine.......

Excellent thank you...

I have a round disk, with a 20mm hole in the centre, this goes in the skimmer box, and you connect the cleaning hose to it. I put this in and it seemed to improve the downwards sucking.

I had alot of grass on the surface today, and was not going into the box, so thats why I thought it was still not 100%.

One more idiot question... can one reduce the amount of water in the pool?

[DEFENDERZOOK]

yes....but it must remain above the bottom edge of the skimmer box......

to drop the level.......you need to pump out to waste......or better to backwash the filter......which will clean the filter at the same time......

never move the valve whilst the pump is running........


if you dont have one.......invest in an automatic pool cleaner......itll free up your weekends......

[juddy]

Ye I was thinking of a auto cleaner, but not sure the pool was large enough for one..

How do you back wash a filter?

[DEFENDERZOOK]

does your filter have any type of multiport valve.......?


better still....tell me what type of filter you have....ie model number and brand....and i can google it to see what it has......
it looks like you are running a cartridge filter........you simply open it up and hose it clean.......

but there must be some type of valve or something somewhere......

[juddy]

Yes large cartridge filter, but unlike a pool i had along time ago theres no shut of valves on this one. Its also got a automatic chlorinator, theres a element in a tube, plus a control box, with a dial reading, low, normal, salty.

Again I have no idea how to maintain this thing, theres a big tank of chlorine sitting in the shed. and also some powdered chlorine.

Its a Compu Chlor unit.

and a cf range cartridge filter

[91ramjet]

Hi there pm me your number if you like and i can talk you through whatever you like .im a pool builder

[kenleyfred]

That flappy gate thing in the skimmer box is important. Mine broke a week ago. Without it the pool just does not skim the surface. And the few surface leaves that do commit suicide into the skimmer box simply float out again when the pump cycles off.

Should have bought a new gate instead of camera for my kids.

[juddy]

Following on from all your helpful advise, I was wondering what do you do when the pool gets too full, like today with all the rain we have. Inside the skimmer box theres something near the top that looks like a over flow outlet, and on one of the large pipes that connects to the chlorinate theres a tap, I had a play with this, but nothing came out of it.

Any ideas?