I've noticed that our pool skimmer seems to be a bit weak in removing leaves and debris before this stuff sinks to the bottom. Our Zodiac MX8 dutifully cleans this mess up, but our neighbor's trees dump quite a bit of leaves into our pool. So, I'd like to optimize our skimmer efficiency before the fall when the leaves are really dumping!
I think one issue may be that the water level is too high. I'm trying to set our automatic water level valve to reduce the H20 level and hopefully this will help. A second issue is that the weir on the skimmer is always horizontal and not increasing surface flow. At first, I thought about replacing the weir, but noticed that when I hold the weir up when the pump is running, there is a huge flow of water into the skimmer, and the water starts to drain out of the skimmer. When the pump is off, the weir returns to a vertical position. So, it seems as though too much water is going through the skimmer but not enough of this is surface flow. Note that the returns in the pool do make for a clockwise flow on the surface, but leaves seem to just float by the skimmer as they approach.
A couple of points... first off, there are two inlets at the bottom of the skimmer where the skimmer basket is placed. One is clearly plumbed to the suction side of the filter pump. I believe the second one may be an equalizer, but I don't know if this port is clogged or not. It would seem if this were functional, then blocking the inlet of surface water by holding the weir would not lead to draining of the skimmer since the equalizing pressure of the water in the pool should cause water to flow into the skimmer from that second (equalizer) port. Second, I don't know where the equalizer port is plumbed. There is a single main drain at the bottom of the pool, and what appear to be two side drains (e.g. on the side of the pool near the skimmer and built in spa). I guess I could run a hose down with one of those rubber drain cleaner attachments to see if that equalizer line is plugged. Note that this pool looked like a swamp when we bought the house 2 years ago due to the previous owners lack of maintenance during the 90d escrow! This could have led to a backup of gunk in the equalizer line.
So my question is whether or not a plugged equalizer line might be causing too much flow in the skimmer, and as a byproduct, limiting surface flow due to the weir being pulled full open?
I think one issue may be that the water level is too high. I'm trying to set our automatic water level valve to reduce the H20 level and hopefully this will help. A second issue is that the weir on the skimmer is always horizontal and not increasing surface flow. At first, I thought about replacing the weir, but noticed that when I hold the weir up when the pump is running, there is a huge flow of water into the skimmer, and the water starts to drain out of the skimmer. When the pump is off, the weir returns to a vertical position. So, it seems as though too much water is going through the skimmer but not enough of this is surface flow. Note that the returns in the pool do make for a clockwise flow on the surface, but leaves seem to just float by the skimmer as they approach.
A couple of points... first off, there are two inlets at the bottom of the skimmer where the skimmer basket is placed. One is clearly plumbed to the suction side of the filter pump. I believe the second one may be an equalizer, but I don't know if this port is clogged or not. It would seem if this were functional, then blocking the inlet of surface water by holding the weir would not lead to draining of the skimmer since the equalizing pressure of the water in the pool should cause water to flow into the skimmer from that second (equalizer) port. Second, I don't know where the equalizer port is plumbed. There is a single main drain at the bottom of the pool, and what appear to be two side drains (e.g. on the side of the pool near the skimmer and built in spa). I guess I could run a hose down with one of those rubber drain cleaner attachments to see if that equalizer line is plugged. Note that this pool looked like a swamp when we bought the house 2 years ago due to the previous owners lack of maintenance during the 90d escrow! This could have led to a backup of gunk in the equalizer line.
So my question is whether or not a plugged equalizer line might be causing too much flow in the skimmer, and as a byproduct, limiting surface flow due to the weir being pulled full open?
