No Jandy valves before my pump!

[cameradude]

We had a warm spring here in AZ and thanks to my solar cover we started swimming a couple weeks ago. The pool has quite a bit of fine dust settled in it from being unused all winter and I thougt I would sweep it by the main drain but the dust just floated past the drain. I looked up how to adjust the flow from the drain and saw that there should be some valves before the pump to control how much comes from the main drain and how much comes from the one skimmer I have. But here is what my plumbing looks like:


Is this normal? How can I get my main drain to pull some of the water to the filter?

 

[jblizzle]

Look under the basket in your skimmer. You should have 2 holes. One will be the suction line to the pump and the other comes from the floor. To force suction to the floor, you need to have a float diverter under the skimmer basket .... looks like a flying saucer

 

[Texas Splash]

Perhaps your main drain is plumbed directly into the skimmer? Some skimmers have 2 holes for that very purpose, then they install a disc-shaped device called a diverter to adjust the flow from one or the other.

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Perhaps your main drain is plumbed directly into the skimmer? Some skimmers have 2 holes for that very purpose, then they install a disc-shaped device called a diverter to adjust the flow from one or the other.

Ah ha! Jason beat me to the post.

 

[Richard320]

This is how the diverter works, if your main drain is plumbed to the bottom of the skimmer.

 

[cameradude]

I do have two holes, one is wide open the other has a cap on it which can be unscrewed. So do I need to unscrew that and replce it with a diverter?

 

[jblizzle]

Assuming that it is not also capped down by the floor. Then yes.

 

[Richard320]

I do have two holes, one is wide open the other has a cap on it which can be unscrewed. So do I need to unscrew that and replce it with a diverter?

Well, it;s hard to say. Freezing isn't much of a problem in Phoenix, so it wasn't emptied and plugged for the winter, which suggests maybe there was a leak and it was plugged off on both ends. Or it could have been plugged when it was built and there's nothing beneath it. Poke around a little and see if there are any capped or broken-off pipes that might have gone to a Jandy valve in the past. If there aren't, then I guess you get to play plumbing detective.

 

[cameradude]

Please check my logic on this:
Now the main drain is capped so all of the water getting pulled to the pump is through the skimmer. If I uncap the other hole then would the flow be 50 - 50 between the main drain and the skimmer?

 

[Richard320]

Please check my logic on this:
Now the main drain is capped so all of the water getting pulled to the pump is through the skimmer. If I uncap the other hole then would the flow be 50 - 50 between the main drain and the skimmer?

Not really. It's a lot easier for water to just fall into the wide skimmer via gravity than it is to drag it through a narrow length of pipe and all its bends. Without a diverter valve, you probably won't get any suction to the main drain unless the skimmer basket is clogged.

 

[cameradude]

Well, it;s hard to say. Freezing isn't much of a problem in Phoenix, so it wasn't emptied and plugged for the winter, which suggests maybe there was a leak and it was plugged off on both ends. Or it could have been plugged when it was built and there's nothing beneath it. Poke around a little and see if there are any capped or broken-off pipes that might have gone to a Jandy valve in the past. If there aren't, then I guess you get to play plumbing detective.

Thereis no evidence of former plumbing by the pump.
Is there a reason to believe that it was not capped because of a leak?! It would seem to me that anybody would want a mixture of main drain and skimmer unless there was a good reason to cap it. When I uscrewed the cap there was already water in the pipe below it, is that reason enough to conclude there is no leak?

 

[Richard320]

Thereis no evidence of former plumbing by the pump.
Is there a reason to believe that it was not capped because of a leak?! It would seem to me that anybody would want a mixture of main drain and skimmer unless there was a good reason to cap it. When I uscrewed the cap there was already water in the pipe below it, is that reason enough to conclude there is no leak?

Probably. Stick a garden hose down it and see if a bunch of debris gets flushed out of the drain.

 

[cameradude]

There is a bend in the pipe about 6 inches below where it comes into the skimmer area so I couldn't get the hose down too far. With the hose on full I didn't see debris come out of the main drain but I did see turbulance in the water coming out of it. I am going to consider that a success and order a diverter.

I will be leaving town for a couple of weeks in a few days so I don't want to introduce something new into the system in case it goes pear-shaped, so I will play with it when I get back.