I need to drain due to high CYA numbers. I thought I was going to buy a pump, but noticed a spigot in my equipment area. Is that to drain or fill?? I have a cartridge filter system. Thanks in advance!!!
Drain question! HELP!!!
- Thread starter adeleincali
- Start date
If the spigot is in the pipe sticking up and leading off to the filter, yes, with some caveats.
But you have to have a way to only drain from the main drain at the bottom of the pool. If you can't shut off the skimmer, it'll only work until the water goes down to the skimmer level, then you'll just suck air. It's also going to be slow, since a garden hose will only flow about 1/10 as much water as a 1½" discharge hose hooked to a rental pump. The rest of the water you're pulling in will go through the filter and shoot back into the pool. It'll cost a small fortune to run that big pool pump 24 hours a day for 3 or 4 days to empty it. A high capacity pump from a rental place (rumor has it home depot rents them, too. Worth a call) will empty it in a couple hours.
But you have to have a way to only drain from the main drain at the bottom of the pool. If you can't shut off the skimmer, it'll only work until the water goes down to the skimmer level, then you'll just suck air. It's also going to be slow, since a garden hose will only flow about 1/10 as much water as a 1½" discharge hose hooked to a rental pump. The rest of the water you're pulling in will go through the filter and shoot back into the pool. It'll cost a small fortune to run that big pool pump 24 hours a day for 3 or 4 days to empty it. A high capacity pump from a rental place (rumor has it home depot rents them, too. Worth a call) will empty it in a couple hours.
The spigot will drain if you have the pump running and the spigot open. However, as I found out in my case, my skimmer and plumbing was configured in a way that the spigot would only drain until the water dropped below the skimmer inlet, after that the pump would stop unless I have a special plate in my skimmer which would force water to come from the main drain. Yours may be plumbed differently - do you have a separate line from the main drain going to your pump inlet controllable with a valve?
Can you access any ground level below the pool? If so, you may not need a pump at all, except maybe to get a siphon started. I was able to do it using a siphon and keep it going overnight.
Just a word of caution with those submersible type pumps - the ones I saw for rental at our local HD and other rental outlets had very short (10ft) cords. If you put one at the deep end of your pool, you will likely need an extension cord and the coupling will be uncomfortably close to the pool edge. I considered doing it anyways, and the using a u-shaped stake to make sure some kid or dog wouldn't accidentally drag the cord along with the coupling right into the pool - but then decided I just didn't want the danger. The transfer type pumps which take a hose at each end are better, but those are typically not rental items.
Just a word of caution with those submersible type pumps - the ones I saw for rental at our local HD and other rental outlets had very short (10ft) cords. If you put one at the deep end of your pool, you will likely need an extension cord and the coupling will be uncomfortably close to the pool edge. I considered doing it anyways, and the using a u-shaped stake to make sure some kid or dog wouldn't accidentally drag the cord along with the coupling right into the pool - but then decided I just didn't want the danger. The transfer type pumps which take a hose at each end are better, but those are typically not rental items.
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