Today was the day for closing and it went great with a 6HP shop vac. I hooked my blower up for fun after, and there really wasn't much left but some spray.
Anywho I wanted to do a write up for all the folks wondering if they could save a chunk of change and tackle their own closing.
First, I vacuumed. Everybody can already do that. Then, I drained below the returns. I used my main drain and waste line, but a submersible pump would have worked also.
I put the shop vac hose on the exhaust post so it would blow, and it was a perfect fit in the skimmer hole. As soon as I got it in there, water was coming out of the returns. It wasn't violent like it would be with a blower, but once the bulk of the water was out, it spit like a cyclone would.
Only the first return emptied being the 1st stop on the run. So I plugged that one and the remainder of the water blew out the other return.
That was too easy, so I filled the pipes with the hose and took apart the equipment pad in order to isolate the lines like some of you may have to do for a shop vac to work with complex systems. I used duct tape to seal the hose to the line. Just a few wraps is plenty.
The return looked like the above pic again. The skimmers blew pretty impressive for a weak blower.
Then I hooked up my (768 CFM at the nozzle) blower to see what was left, and there wasn't anything left but drips. Again, a few wraps of duct tape made the seal.
The returns got plugged and the skimmers got gizzmos with Teflon tape on them and some cut up pool noodles.
Anywho I wanted to do a write up for all the folks wondering if they could save a chunk of change and tackle their own closing.
First, I vacuumed. Everybody can already do that. Then, I drained below the returns. I used my main drain and waste line, but a submersible pump would have worked also.
I put the shop vac hose on the exhaust post so it would blow, and it was a perfect fit in the skimmer hole. As soon as I got it in there, water was coming out of the returns. It wasn't violent like it would be with a blower, but once the bulk of the water was out, it spit like a cyclone would.
Only the first return emptied being the 1st stop on the run. So I plugged that one and the remainder of the water blew out the other return.
That was too easy, so I filled the pipes with the hose and took apart the equipment pad in order to isolate the lines like some of you may have to do for a shop vac to work with complex systems. I used duct tape to seal the hose to the line. Just a few wraps is plenty.
The return looked like the above pic again. The skimmers blew pretty impressive for a weak blower.
Then I hooked up my (768 CFM at the nozzle) blower to see what was left, and there wasn't anything left but drips. Again, a few wraps of duct tape made the seal.
The returns got plugged and the skimmers got gizzmos with Teflon tape on them and some cut up pool noodles.
