Suction Pressure in Skimmer

[john.esher]

I'm trying to figure out if what I'm experiencing in our pool is normal. Our goal with this pool was to learn over a few seasons before going for a larger "permanent" oval with deck. We have the extra maintenance kit that included the in-pool skimmer and vacuum. I have no difficulty with the vacuum, but the skimmer just didn't seem to work. All sorts of debris floating around that wouldn't get into the skimmer because the blue floating ring would be too high.

Yesterday at work I was talking with another AG owner who has a through the wall skimmer and she didn't understand how mine worked, so I showed her the Intex video. I said "see how their's just floats below the surface" and then the light bulb went off. I took off the puck filter used the black plug to cover the inlet and the blue ring sucked right down in the skimmer. So I'm guessing the filter is not powerful enough to pull from both inlets. I thought I got an ungraded pump with my package but maybe it was just upgraded to a sand filter.

So my questions are:

Is this what I should expect with the pump for this pool? and,

Is there any issue with just running the skimmer only and not the second inlet?


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[Bama Rambler]

1) Yes, unfortunately it's what you can expect. Those pumps just aren't powerful enough to power two suctions.
2) There is no issue with just running the skimmer alone.

 

[gtty]

Make sure the grill under the hose attachment point on the side of the pool isn't clogged by unscrewing the blue nozzle. If it has anything in it, it will eliminate its effectiveness.

 

[john.esher]

Make sure the grill under the hose attachment point on the side of the pool isn't clogged by unscrewing the blue nozzle. If it has anything in it, it will eliminate its effectiveness.

And this is super useful advice I figured out almost simultaneously with the posting. Did a vacuum and a backwash and could not figure out why the pressure on the gauge was nearly zero and the outlet was greatly reduced. Pulled the skimmer hose and then the discovered a bunch of grass nearly blocking the port.


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[gtty]

I cut the grills out of my intakes and return so that I wouldn't have that problem again.

 

[Mickelin]

Also make sure the skimmer bucket is far enough below the surface that the blue ring has an inch or two of leeway up and down. Hard to tell from the picture, but looks like yours might be too high. The blue ring will sit just at the surface, but the water level inside the ring should be well below the level outside if your suction is ok.