skimmer failsauce

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The skimmer fiasco continues. I ran it all day yesterday while I was out of town with the nylon stretched over the over the top of the basket. When I got home, I could see debris in the intake hose (yes, there was some debris in the nylon too), so I turned the pump off and closed the valves to the pump. I removed the skimmer hose, and removed the whole skimmer assembly from the pool. There were plenty of leaves that went around the basket into the bottom of skimmer housing, blocking the intake. I took the whole thing apart and cleaned it all.

I thought I better take a peek at the filter, and the chamber was only 1/4 full of water (3/4 full of air!!!) I thought the pump was supposed to shut off if it was pumping air?

Anyway, so nylon over the top is not going to work. I'm disappointed with the whole thing. I don't mind cleaning the skimmer every day, but I don't like how poor design may damage the pump. I may yet call Intex and fuss, but I don't really see how they can do anything about it.

The only thing I haven't tried is wrappping the filter cartridge in nylon, but I've yet to hear any confirmation or denials that allowing a lot of matter into the pump will gum it up.

Right now, it seems the only workable solution I have is to attach the skimmer an hour or so before the kids get in the pool, because it DOES skim well, it just doesn't CATCH worth a flip. Put the basket inside the nylon (that seemed to catch better than nylon over the top) and put nylons around the filter for the gnats that make it past the skimmer.

Any more suggestions/ideas/thoughts/solutions/brainstorms/brainfarts/anything? :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer:
 
The only thing I can add is that it was left unattended too long. Mine gets checked a couple of times a day. My pump is also on a timer.

I'm not familiar with a intek skimmer, could be different than what I have.


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These are the reasons I don't mess with the basket. As you can see, bad, bad design. Hence I cut out any and all things that can cause it to clog, minimizing that as much as possible. But not entirely eliminating it though.

As for the pump, no, the nylons won't hurt it. You aren't putting the nylons after the impeller or anything, so there's no chance of hurting it. The impeller is separated and protected from dirty water by the filter, this protects it from bits of debris and such. The nylons don't circumvent this, they just improve the system and make it filter better.

See my previous post for dos and dont's on this.

That's a bummer to hear you're having such a hard time with the deluxe version of Intex's over the wall skimmer. As I had heard it was Sooo much better than my basic one.

You do have to monitor and check the filter in that pump like a hawk though. As soon as you hear it starting to make a bit more noise, you know It's time to shut it down, pull out the cartridge and hose that puppy off. If you don't stay on it, you'll ruin the pump motor.
Trust me, I know. It's like watching a mischievous small toddler. uggh! Well... almost worse in some ways.

I noticed too that if you get air in the pump filter housing and you did indeed properly bleed it @ startup, preferably 2x with a shutdown and restart in between. Then you have a clog somewhere on the suction side in the hose, at a fitting, skimmer, somewhere. This causes increased backpressure and vacuum, making air enter through fittings where it normally wouldn't. Also, the skimmer likes to slip and suck air, less of a problem on hard sided pools, but still happens. So keep an eye on that and your flow rate as an indicator of a clog. All pump killers. When she starts rattling all the time, she's about done fur. ;)
 
pwrstrk said:
The only thing I can add is that it was left unattended too long. Mine gets checked a couple of times a day. My pump is also on a timer.

I'm not familiar with a intek skimmer, could be different than what I have.


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Click to expand...


It was only unattended for about 12 hours. My pump has a timer, but it's not strong enough, so I run it pretty much 24/7.
 
Ok. But if there is alot of junk on the surface of the water 12 hrs of skimming will put alot of stuff in the skimmer basket. That's why it needs to be checked. In pollen season there will a ton of junk in there.

That's Also what starved the pump of water.


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Chewbubba said:
I wonder if the Hayward through-the-wall skimmer is designed any better... It was on my wishlist for next year.
Click to expand...

Yes, the Hayward ttw skimmer works like a champ, you can't even compare the two, apples and oranges. The intex is a conglomeration of compromises to try to build a skimmer that will attach to the standard intex plumbing. The Hayward is a professional quality skimmer that does what it is supposed to do in the best way possible.
 
Chewbubba. I have the same skimmer and I was having a similar problem. Id clean my filer but there was very little water coming out the return. When u clean the skimmer. Unscrew the blue adapter that the skimmer plugs into from the wall fitting. There's a plastic screen in there and the holes are smaller than the one on the skimmer basket. I guarantee you that the plastic screen will be plugged. Make sure to clean it often. That should help with ur water flow issue
 
My blue adapter has no screen. :/

As it is, it's more trouble than it's worth. For now, I'll put the skimmer on a bit before the kids get in, let it get most of the bugs, and take it off. The basket inside pantyhose works pretty well (as long as the pantyhose goes all the way up the sides of the basket), but none of it works well enough for me to leave connected to the pool for any length of time.

I need to chat with some folks that have the Hayward through-the-wall skimmer to see if I can avoid some of the problems I'm having with this one. I'm sure gnats will go through that skimmer basket too.
 

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The screen that I was referring to will be on the gray fitting that is in the wall of your pool that the blue adapter screws onto. You could also try getting a piece of window screen and cutting it the same diameter as the bottom of the skimmer basket and setting it in there. Thatdd trap lot more Crud and u could clean it by emptying the basket. If it tries to float up or not stay in place, stick a few small pebbles on it to keep it in place.
 
And even if the screen clogged, there are some plastic flaps on the bottom of the skimmer that allow water to get sucked into the skimmer thru the bottom in the event that the basket clogs, to keep ur pump from runnin dry.
 
Heck, u could trim a piece of window screen to the height of the cartridge filter and wrap it around the filter a couple of times and use some zip ties to lightly hold it in place if u wanted a pre filter. Or :) u could get a sand filter. We get flies and june bugs and my sand filter eats em all up and keeps pluggin away lol u should see the backwash water.
 
Ok, that brings up an important question my wife and I had - if loads and loads gnats get sucked into a SAND FILTER, does it matter? (lol, that kinda reminds me of "If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there, does it make a sound")

A sand filter was on our wishlist for next year too. In fact, we were going to start looking near the end of the swimming season hoping they would be on sale.
 
It will filter them all out. The biggest difference between the sand filter and the cartridge filter is how often you need to clean it and how much dirt/debris it will hold between cleanings. When I had my cartridge filter "the 1500 gph", I would literally vacuum 1/4 of the pool and have to clean the filter. it loaded up so incredibly quick. I can vacuum the entire pool 3-4 times before I have to backwash the filter. Its amazing how much stuff it will catch and hold inbetween backwashes, and to clean the sand filter... its sooo much easier. You don't have to open anything up or hose anything off, you literally move a valve, run the pump, wait for the water to clear up in the sight glass, and move it back to its original position. I also noticed that I only have to run the filter for 2 hours a day vs 4 hrs with the cartridge.
 
Chewbubba said:
Ok, that brings up an important question my wife and I had - if loads and loads gnats get sucked into a SAND FILTER, does it matter? (lol, that kinda reminds me of "If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there, does it make a sound")
Click to expand...

over time the pressure will increase but all you have to do is backwash to clean it out. but you can cut back on the gnats reaching the filter by putting a skimmer sock over the skimmer basket.
 
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