skimmer failsauce

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Chewbubba

Chewbubba

0
Jun 13, 2012
133
Russellville, AR
We've been awaiting this skimmer http://www.amazon.com/Intex-Deluxe-Moun ... intex+pool

to arrive to ride out the rest of this season and planned on installing a Hayward through-the-wall skimmer next season.

It finally came today, and after only 5 minutes of setup, it was in the pool and running. Seemed to work like a charm.

After a couple of hours I went back out to look at it and there was nary a gnat in the pool anywhere. I also noticed the return was barely putting any water back in the pool. I thought, "I need to clean the skimmer." I took it out, and there was nothing in it. All the gnats and ants apparently fit through the holes in the skimmer basket and made their way into the pump and clogged the filter (and hopefully didn't damage the pump).

I've yanked out the filter, cleaned the filter housing, and I'm fixing to run to the store to pick up some more filters (that was my last one).

Any suggestions about the skimmer?
 
Seems like if you put the pantyhose over the cartridge, then that defeats the purpose of the skimmer, no? Wouldn't the gnats just shoot right out the return? I thought I was trying to catch the little buggers and get them out of the pool AND keep them out of the pump. :?:
 
I use knee high pantyhose and it works great. Catches all kinds of Crud you wouldnt even think was in the pool. Have to clean it out at least once per day though. I usually run my pump on low but I have ran it on high after I cleaned the pantyhose with no problems. The pantyhose doesnt slide off of mine because it gets pulled around back towards the bottom. If your like me you will get someone else to pay for them since Im a man. Hehe.
 
Pwrstrk do you have an Intex skimmer?
I have tried it over the skimmer, It's an EPIC FAIL!
That skimmer is absolutely nothing like an IGP type skimmer.

Mind you, I'm referring to the standard Intex skimmer, not the "deluxe model" in question,
of which, I haven't had access to specifically test this.
So this only applies to the basic one, but like I said from not having a deluxe, it might/might not.

It doesn't stay down in the hole from suction, the whole skimmer is just complete garbage to begin with! Things flow right past the catch basket, with what little it does catch from its poor edge suction over the side of the floating blue ring, outside the edge of the basket, between it and the blue skimmer wall. Where they then either get stuck in those lame plastic fingers at the inlet on the bottom of the blue skimmer body, or they flow right on through and into the pump cartridge housing and get stuck in the filter. Embedded in the pleats where they're just impossible to get out easily, even with a high pressure nosle.

Of course things still get stuck in all the dumb screens; side wall fitting inlet, floating skimmer inlet, pump inlet, and so on. Of course on the return (pressure side) they just restrict flow. I cut them all out of mine.Night and day difference in flow!


Whoever designed this thing clearly is not much of an engineer. :thumbdown:

If you place the sock over the basket, it creates a high enough resistance that even more junk flows past it because It's following the path of least resistance. Now if that skimmer basket actually created a seal against the housing like a real skimmer, then it'd be fine.

I even tried putting the skimmer sock/nylon on the opposite side of the basket, the outside, by stretching it over the blue housing and resting the basket in it. It doesn't slip off at all this way, but all the suction just gets concentrated to the inlet and the sock gets pulled into and tangled in the fingers of the floating skimmer inlet at the bottom of the housing.
Sure, it works better, since there's no bypass possible for incoming debris, but as soon as you take out the sock, because of those blue fingers at the bottom...... RIIIIIPPPP! FAIL!! :hammer:
So I made a metal screen for it out of stainless mesh, sorta worked, not really.... as it just gets caught in the edges of the mesh. I said forget it and quit messing with it, not worth it at that point.

I could care less about the "skimmer" if they can even call it that, as it just flat doesn't do its job!
So keeping the bugs, leaf bits and other things out of the pleats, not to mention improving the filtration is a win win in my book. It's sooooo easy to hose it off and it filters sooooo much better.

But It's all a moot point now, as I use a full size sand filter now and only have to put up with that skimmer one more season before a "real pool" goes up, with a real skimmer. :party:
So the one good thing that came out of it is the 1st hand experience and advice I can give here to help out with improving on them.

If not, that's cool, but like I said, try it on the deluxe skimmer. It might be fine, as I have read @ Amazon and some here even, that they're muuuuuuch better.
 

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Out of frustration, I disconnected the skimmer last night. We had the basket inside the nylon for a couple hours, and could see the pile of gnats and mosquitoes collecting at the top of the water in the skimmer. Seemed to be working. Later, they were all gone. And the basket was nearly empty. I can only guess water+gnats went right around the basket into the pump. The "deluxe skimmer" doesn't sound any different from the basic skimmer you described, y_not.
[Maybe it's "deluxe" because it has attachments to use it on an EasySet pool or on a metal frame pool? Just guessing... but not really relevant...]

pwrstk, if you put the nylons over the top of the basket, how do you get it out of the pool? Just thinking out loud. Not opposed to trying it.

And again, y_not, doesn't the pump get gummed up with dead bugs? I'm not very familiar with the mechanics of the pump. Maybe that's not an issue at all.

The whole reason we got the skimmer is because of the ridiculous amount of gnats that kamikaze our pool every day. I would spend 30-40 minutes TWICE a day just getting them out with a net. The skimmer did an amazing job of getting the bugs off the surface of the pool... unfortunately, it rammed them inside my pump, filters, hoses... a disgusting mess...
 
A comment based on a comment in all the stuff above... if you buy Unicell (or equal, not Intex brand) brand filters, you can clean the filters and not treat them as disposable. You will also get much better filtration in the process.

If you had two good filters, you can swap them clean and dirty and the clean the dirty one, dry it and then swap it back in when the one in the filter gets plugged. No need to buy a case of poor filters when a couple good ones will last a year or two.
 
techguy said:
A comment based on a comment in all the stuff above... if you buy Unicell (or equal, not Intex brand) brand filters, you can clean the filters and not treat them as disposable. You will also get much better filtration in the process.

If you had two good filters, you can swap them clean and dirty and the clean the dirty one, dry it and then swap it back in when the one in the filter gets plugged. No need to buy a case of poor filters when a couple good ones will last a year or two.
Click to expand...

Noted!
 
duraleigh said:
chewbubba,

I am still trying to figure out what "skimmer failsauce" means.
Click to expand...

Right there with you on this! Kept trying to figure out what the typo was and what Suri or whatever had changed into fail sauce.
 

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