I am trying to understand how my PB plumbed my skimmers. I specified separate plumbing for skimmers and main drain back to pad, which he did. But he also plumbed an equalizer line into the front skimmer fitting which goes into pool below skimmer. No eyeball or anything on it. And no flap or fitting in the skimmer side. He said it allows the skimmer to operate if the water drops below the skimmer mouth. I can see that. But if water level drops below the bottom of skimmer strainer then it will not do anything. So is it just a safeguard to not suck air for that few Inches of water? I read some web pages that said this is an old way to plumb it and not really used any more. The white pipe edge on the pool wall just looks unfinished. No reason it cannot get an eyeball, right?
Skimmer plumbing
- Thread starter jtech1
- Start date
The skimmer should have a diverter in the bottom so that if the water gets too low it forces the water to be drawn through the equalizer line. That port should have some sort of trim around it or a grate over it.
Equalizer lines are very common on commercial pools, almost unheard of for residential pools. It isn't really about the water level falling below the skimmer opening, instead it is mostly there so that if the skimmer basket gets clogged up with leaves, or other debris, the skimmer will still be able to draw water from the equalizer line. When you don't have a main drain this can be quite important sometimes, but with a main drain it really doesn't serve much purpose.
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