Awkward pool draining

Jump to latest Follow Reply
J

JerEazy

Member
Jan 6, 2020
5
Bradenton FL
Ok - so I’ve lived in my house with my 10k pool for about a year of mostly trouble free ownership. Then this happened while I was away on vacation.

we had a pretty nasty squall line come through and my daughters kite on one side of the porch got blown into the pool. It eventually sunk and covered the main drain. Now again, I wasn’t home. The rain came through Saturday and I got home Sunday.

I’m assuming this caused an issue with the pump as when I got home the pool was half empty, the pump was running but nothing coming out. I immediately shut off the pump and opened up the strainer and it was literal steam coming out.
I refilled the pool, primed the pump, and it kicked it back on. Took a bit to get air out of the lines (have pop ups). And set the filter to run for 24 hours.

Woke up in the AM and the pool was down again, just enough to have the skimmer pulling air which (I’m not a scientist) exacerbates water loss through some heat and oxygenation.

Anyway, my question is me wondering if there is anything else I should check and confirm is in working order before I go through the process of getting the chemicals back in order? I’m not a pool expert either - so any guidance, videos, walk through etc would be great.

thank you
 
JE,

Welcome to TFP... A great place to learn all about how your pool works.. :shark:

I can't see how covering the main drain would have anything to do with water loss. The water has to go somewhere.

The only place water can go is down a backwash line or through a leaking pipe.

When you say you have pop-ups I assume you have an in-floor cleaning system. Is that correct?

Show us a couple of pics of your equipment pad..

Let's see what our other members have to say.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Sounds like your pool is leaking? Were your skimmers also on or just the main drain? I can see if the main drain was the only drain on and it was covered the pump could have damaged the main drain pipe as it has enough suction to collapse it. But if the skimmer/s were on it would not have mattered if the main drain was covered. Need more info!
 
the skimmer and main drain were on.

Yes i have the floor cleaning system. I'm not home now, but i will get some pictures tonight. I have never had a leak before (not to say that cant be the case of course).

My thought was that as the main drain got covered it caused a suction issue of sorts on return? bubbles, heat, basically water loss through evap or boiling it off for a day or 2 while we were out of town. As i said, when i turned off the pump and opened the skimmer basket on the pump it was literal steam that came out. I added water to the basket right away to "cool" it off. But the water was boiling. I do not have a pool heater.
 
JE,

I'm pretty sure the pump would melt into the ground before it could boil away half of the water in your pool... :mrgreen:

I suggest that you fill the pool up to the middle of the skimmer mouth and then turn off the pump and let it sit overnight and see how much water loss you have. If not much, then turn on the pump and see if the water level goes down.. Basically trying to determine if the leak is better or worse with the pump running.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Ok - pool level stayed good through the day. I filled up to the exact middle of the skimmer and killed the pump for the night.

here is my pump set up and here is the “junction” for the pop ups.

worth noting, out of curiosity I turned the valve pictured to the “main drain only” and got a lot of aeration. so I reset it and let the pump fill back up. I then turned to the skimmer only and got the same thing. Lots of bubbles and aeration. Goes fine in the middle.
 

Attachments

  • B4590D03-C42C-467A-90AC-226ACCEBBC8A.jpeg
    B4590D03-C42C-467A-90AC-226ACCEBBC8A.jpeg
    758.7 KB · Views: 37
  • 3D3DDA70-5E8F-4E8F-9717-311CE29FA4AE.jpeg
    3D3DDA70-5E8F-4E8F-9717-311CE29FA4AE.jpeg
    467.9 KB · Views: 38
Last edited:
Ok came home today and it had drained to the bottom of the skimmer. I had a fix there earlier this year where the bolts for the flapper door rusted away and water was draining in their holes. I’m going to give it another day and see if the level maintains here and then check those holes if so.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply