Should I go with pool without main drain?

[slavka001]

One of the PB we are thinking to go with to build vinyl pool is going to put return at the deap end but said he did not do main drains for 20 years. No need to.
Do i have to have one? What do you guys say?
I guess small debries will collect at the bottom until i vacume. is there anything else?
Or should I just tell him to put it in?

 

[Bama Rambler]

Re: Should I go with pool without mail drain?

A lot of people are going without main drains. A lot of people that have main drains have trouble with them clogging. The call is yours but I'd say go without it. A low wall drain would be a nice replacement.

 

[WestSidePool]

Re: Should I go with pool without mail drain?

My pool was installed w/o a main drain. We haven't had any problems and it's one less thing to worry about having issues with.
The one thing i could see using it for is draining the pool when getting it ready for winter. So I just bought a submersible pump to drain the water below the return jets.

 

[BadOleRoss]

My pool has a main drain but I have to admit I like the idea of no main drain and a low wall drain. You never really need the main drain to totally empty a pool and lets face it, if you pool really left filled with debris for whatever reason the main drain is going to be the first thing to clog up.

 

[mas985]

If you do go without a main drain and you have a deep end, then I would have at least one lower return.

I guess small debries will collect at the bottom until i vacume. is there anything else?

Main drains really don't do much for that anyway. They can only suck in debris from a few inches away. They are primarily for circulation which a lower return can handle.

 

[JamesW]

An automatic cleaner will take care of debris, help circulate bottom water and mostly make a main drain redundant.

 

[slavka001]

thank you guys.
that reasures me with the PB selection. Some of the BS so much you can not tell truth from lies.

 

[Puffin]

My pool has a main drain. It doesn't really collect anything. But then again don't expect to collect any debris, small or otherwise. Its real benefit is to provide additional circulation. You want to eliminate low/no circulation areas. I like Mark's idea of a deeper return(s).

Mark, wouldn't loosing one suction side device (the main drain) negatively effect your plumbing efficiency? I know in that work sheet you made, asks for the number of suction side connections to determine head.

 

[mas985]

Yes, eliminating the main drain increases suction head some but one could always add a skimmer instead or even upsize the skimmer pipe one size. Either would help compensate some.