Best way to position eyeballs of my return for most efficient operation?

[rawb]

Currently, the one near the deep end (left) is pointed downward towards the main drains and the one in the shallow end (right) is pointed upwards towards the surface. I want to position this the best way I can for circulation, skimming, stirring up added chemicals, etc.



Thanks!

 

[Dirk]

Great question! Been wondering the same. Currently I have mine set to get the water spinning (they all point off to the left), thinking that by circulating the surface clockwise I'll drive surface gunk past the skimmer, where it's more likely to all get sucked in (and that is pretty much working in my pool). My deep end eyeball is pointing a bit down, to stir up the bottom, too. But my pool is rounder, with three returns spaced evenly around the pool, so not sure how well that would work with your more rectangular shape with returns only on one side.

I would have to guess mixing would benefit, too, by rotating the water around the pool.

I have a prevailing wind in my area, which, unfortunately does not push stuff towards the skimmer. So on a windy day all bets are off. Does your skimmer get any help from the wind?

I'll be following along with what others suggest...

- - - Updated - - -

PS. Was your pool built without main drains? I just had mine removed, as they were never configured to move water, and were just hanging up my cleaner. I'm hoping I don't regret that decision. So far, I think my circulation is fine.

 

[rawb]

Great question! Been wondering the same. Currently I have mine set to get the water spinning (they all point off to the left), thinking that by circulating the surface clockwise I'll drive surface gunk past the skimmer, where it's more likely to all get sucked in (and that is pretty much working in my pool). My deep end eyeball is pointing a bit down, to stir up the bottom, too. But my pool is rounder, with three returns spaced evenly around the pool, so not sure how well that would work with your more rectangular shape with returns only on one side.

I would have to guess mixing would benefit, too, by rotating the water around the pool.

I have a prevailing wind in my area, which, unfortunately does not push stuff towards the skimmer. So on a windy day all bets are off. Does your skimmer get any help from the wind?

I'll be following along with what others suggest...

- - - Updated - - -

PS. Was your pool built without main drains? I just had mine removed, as they were never configured to move water, and were just hanging up my cleaner. I'm hoping I don't regret that decision. So far, I think my circulation is fine.

Dirk... thanks for the reply! I have that same prevailing wind as you do unfortunately and seems to be blowing things away from my skimmer and into the stairs =/

Yes, my pool was built with 2 main drains. Glad to hear that yours seems OK after removing the main drains.

 

[Dirk]

Hmm, so if you have drains, then maybe you can adjust everything so that the returns are doing some rotating, while the drains deal with the deep end circulation? I'm just guessing.

Caveat. Running water through drains can be dangerous (they have caused entrapment deaths). Which is another reason I felt good about removing mine. The two-drain setup and the drain covers themselves (if they are the newer, safer kind) address this issue. But I could still imagine a scenario where my 6 year old (who loves to throw anything he can find into the pool) might somehow compromise the two drain safety operation enough to create a potential hazard. This is far fetched, of course, but I suspect all the deaths that have been caused by drains were flukes in some way or another. My boys are shaved, but my little princess' hair will soon be long enough. And because I have a solar heater, I have the pump running pretty high during the day (during swim time). So active drains would not be worth the gamble to me, personally.

Bummer about our skimmer locations. You'd think PBs would consider such things.