Skimmer Sock/Nylon Illustrated

[Richard320]

There has been some confusion about skimmer socks. So I took a few pictures to clarify things for the beginners. This is a queen-sized knee-high nylon purchased at Walgreens. I prefer white, but sometimes you have to make do with what's in stock.


[center:1eidpzog]What it looks like out of the skimmer.[attachment=2:1eidpzog]skimmer1.jpg[/attachment:1eidpzog]
Side view. Note the clump of debris in the toe.
[attachment=1:1eidpzog]skimmer2.jpg[/attachment:1eidpzog]
Cleaning the nylon over the composter.
[attachment=0:1eidpzog]skimmer3.jpg[/attachment:1eidpzog][/center:1eidpzog]

 

[BoDarville]

Nice pics, Richard.

I have had great luck with skimmer socks and use them during the tree-budding season here.

For anyone new to using skimmer socks, one thing you want to avoid is placing them in your skimmer and then turning the pump on for several hours or so without checking on them. You will need to clean these socks frequently, especially during the pollen high season. By frequently, I mean after running the pump for as little as two hours if you have a high infestation of small pollen debris. The socks will catch the debris as they are designed to do. But if it gets too caked up, it will starve your pump of water. Best way to mitigate this is to get several pair of skimmer socks and rotate out the dirty ones with clean ones. Then immediately clean out the dirty ones so they will be ready for another round of duty.

 

[anonapersona]

You might add a Photo 4 to show swishing that skimmer basket, while upside down as in Photo 3, in a bucket of water to clean the sock. It will get pretty clean.

 

[tcat]

My 2 cents. I tried these from Lowes, but decided they trap too much and are too restrictive (skimmer sucked about half as much).

So I tried these, and they work great. I'm sure panty hose are also great. I also use the material in the 5 gallon version as a leaf net replacement. Gets most of the smaller floating stuff... and cheaper than buying a new fine mesh net.

 

[einhard]

Are these the same kind of socks I need to use to add stabilizer? For some reason I had a gym sock in my head...

 

[Richard320]

Are these the same kind of socks I need to use to add stabilizer? For some reason I had a gym sock in my head...

Either will work. The nylons may be slightly more porous.