deep pool clogged main drain

[lucaslaw]

Switched to BBB after daily chlor etched my plaster #$%%

Pump burned up over winter and pool went black so I pumped it out, when I removed the main drain cover (12 ft down) it was full of dirt, vaccumed the dirt out and found the pipe was 3/4 buried in concrete, only about 1/2 inch of pipe open, couldn't get a snake in it. Put a drainking on the pump side and water shot out of the spa drain, so I guess they're in series. Pressure washed pool and refilled. Questions are:
1 has the drain been deliberately plugged or just a bad replaster,
2 does it matter that its plugged as long as I aim the jets toward the deep end.
Since I bought the house I noticed that when valve is set to "main" the spa drains, never really though much of it. I can set the valve to skimmers (2) and put the drainking in the spa drain to isolate main and try and blow it out.

 

[waste]

Welcome to TFP!!

I doubt the crete in the pipe was intentional. With the restricted opening, if you try to draw only through that drain, you'll probably end up with cavitating water which will be noticed as bubbles in the pump. If the pool hadn't been refilled, I'd have said to gently chip as much as you could out, even if you only got 1/2 of it, the flow would improve - if you have SCUBA gear, you could try it with the water up but as i said, go gently!! cracking the pipe would cause a BIG problem

If you don't mind basically not having a main drain, there's nothing wrong with leaving it as it is, just be sure that the water level never gets low enough to starve the skimmers.

I hope you have a great season! We'll be here to answer any other questions you have.

 

[chem geek]

Switched to BBB after daily chlor etched my plaster #$%%

I'm curious about this. What do you mean by "daily chlor"? Did you mean Trichlor in a floating feeder?

Richard