Hi. I'm a newbie here, and a newbie to pools. Bought a house with an in-ground pool, moved in in early September. Foolishly said "no thanks" when the previous owner offered to close it, and now I'm paying for about a weeks worth of pool usage with having to figure out how to close the pool.

I think I'm doing okay so far. The pump and sand filter are in the garage, which will be heated through the winter. I've managed to blow and cap the lines to the jets with a shop vac.

I bought a Gizzmo for the skimmer basket, but it doesn't fit. The Gizzmo has threads right on the end of it, but the basket has the threads recessed in a bit where the Gizzmo doesn't reach. I'm not sure what to do about that.

Also, there are two lines from the skimmer. One of them obviously goes to the pump, but where does the other go? What do I do about that one?

Thanks!
-- Steve

Hi Steve... Welcome to TFP!

Where does the other skimmer line go? Two possibilities come to mind. Your skimmer might be connected to the main drain(s). Or it could bend around and connect to an inlet beneath the water line, usually close by the skimmer. (Done to circumvent loss of prime at the pump in case the water level drops below skimmer.)

What to do with this? I'll leave that question for the closing experts here on this forum...

I don't see an inlet near the skimmer. Hmm.

The double port in the bottom of the skimmer is not always used. One could be plugged and only look like there's a pipe underneath....check to make sure.

If you have two pipes, one goes to the pump and the other either to a main drain or another skimmer.........Less likely, it can also go to the "relief" port as polyvue decribed.

So I think I figured out where the 2nd line from the skimmer goes - to the main drain.

I can't really blow this out, since the drain's at the bottom of the pool and I don't have any way of plugging that. If I blow into that line in the skimmer, the water just flows back in through the drain.

Not sure what to do about this - I'm thinking dump some RV antifreeze down there and hope for the best. Any other suggestions?

Are the connections at the bottom of the skimmer threaded? If so, I'd get adapters that that fit, a couple of short pieces of pipe, a cap and a valve stem. Glue the pipes to the adapters, size the pipe+adapter length to almost reach out of the skimmer. Cut a hole in the cap and install the valve stem, then glue it onto the main drain pipe.
Now the skimmer to pump line can be blown out from the pump end with a wet/dry vac, returning the water to the pool(the line could then be capped.) Then a compressor can be used to slowly "inflate" the drain line until bubbles come out of the drain, if your connections and valve stem are leak free, the drain line will remain "pressurized" and free of water.
And/Or you can pour RV anti-freeze into the drain line, adding enough to get below the frost line.
I know of at least one person who uses the adapter/pipe on the returns too, so he doesn't have to reach into the bubbling pool to put the plugs in. I don't care for it myself, because the pipes left poking up in the pool.
Good Luck!

I came up with a solution that I think will work.

I bought 10' of flexible vinyl tube at Lowes and a stopper for one end of it. I inserted it down the drain hole, open end first, all 10' of it, and then screwed the gizzmo in on top of it.

The tube holds its shape but you can squeeze it in your fingers, so what I think will happen is when ice freezes in the line, the tube will squeeze and the air will squeeze out the bottom of the tube.

Simple enough, and cheap. Hope it works.