Skimmer / Drain Question

[SeanH]

Hi All. Hope everyone is having a good summer....at least better than the northeast where it seems to rain every day!

Anyway, I was having a problem with water leaking from my pool to the tune of 1" per day on bad days with no one swimming and very little sun. So I had the pool company that I use do a leak check for me and they "heard" a leak from the main drain. They sent someone in to check the hydrostatic valve which seemed ok, so they plugged the drain. The drain is in the deep end of my pool at around 9' so it would not be and easy repair if the leak were under the pool.

At this point, I have a broken drain and a broken skimmer. I'm only running suction off of a vacuum port. My plan is if I can get through the next 2-3 months to replace the liner next spring and have two new skimmers installed. The current bad skimmer has 5' - 6' of concrete deck behind it, so repairing that would be difficult at best. The other side of my pool is much closer to the equipment and we would only have to go under three feet of concrete.

On to the questions.....

1) Is it ok to run off the single vacuum port? From the pumps standpoint and from a circulation standpoint? Are there other factors involved?

2) What are thoughts on running two skimmers without a drain? What affect does this have on circulation?

Sean

 

[X-PertPool]

You can run it off a vacuum port but your pool won't be doing much "skimming" of surface debris. I don't feel main drains do much to begin with, plus there are a lot of pools out there with multiple skimmers and no main drains. If you want to save a bunch of money and don't mind the eye sore why not just plumb up an above ground skimmer to your vacuum port to make a pseudo replacement skimmer?

 

[SeanH]

I have a floating skimmer now that runs off one of the returns. It's been that way since I've had it for 5 years as the built in skimmer has not worked since I've had the pool.

I'm still losing water, but not at the rate I was before they plugged the drain.

Guess I'll just keep and eye on it and limp through the rest of the summer.

Thanks for the info.

Sean

 

[X-PertPool]

If you still think you have a leak why not plug up all the inlets to the pool and do a bucket test. If you do have some unaccounted for loss of water then it will be in the shell of the pool. Since your pool is vinyl lined I would recommend calling around to see if someone can perform an electronic leak detection.