Main drain through skimmer or dedicated line?

[garykli]

Hi, I'm building a pool and have heard different opinions on whether the main drain should be plumbed through the skimmer or not. I do like the idea of a dedicated auction line for each, but, which one is better? Why?

Thanks!

 

[Richard320]

I would plumb it separately. It would make it much easier to adjust the balance that fiddling with the diverter down in the skimmer. And if you put it to full drain, you might not need to vacuum; just brush everything towards the drain. And if you ever need to drain any water - and you will at some point because of Calcium buildup thanks to the hard water here - you can use the main drain to pull out as much as you need without worrying about sucking air in the skimmer.

 

[Divin Dave]

I second the idea of dedicated lines. All of them. Simply because on the off chance a pipe springs a leak, that culprit could be more easily troubleshot and then isolated from the circulation system with a plug in the pool and a valve at the equipment pad. This would allow the pool to continue to be operational without much risk until the leak could be fixed.

I'm a big believer in Murphys law. I even went so far as specified a 2nd skimmer and an extra return line for "just in case". If the skimmer and/ or a return line springs a leak for whatever reason, I can isolate it and really, wouldn't have to fix it if I didn't want to. Little more costly up front, but way less expensive and problematic than digging up concrete to fix a leak. But that's just me. I'm jittery about even the remotest possibility of a plumbing line leak under my patio. However I'm also a big believer in "whatever floats your boat" so I don't necessarily recommend what I did to anyone else.

 

[garykli]

Thanks for the feedback. I have asked for separate lines but couldn't really provide a specific argument for why. It just seemed better :-D

Do you normally get a benefit of being able to run skimmer on lower pump speed w/o having to compete w/ the main drain or will all of this equalize at the pump anyways?

Thanks!