Question about my pump, feedback needed.

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laurandavid09

0
Sep 24, 2009
258
Spring, TX
As any of you may have read I just got back from a two week vacation. I came home and went to check the pool and I could not even get the skimmer basket out. It was full of leaves. I had to pull leaves and more leaves out and finally got the basket out. I did not see any leaves below the basket. I turned off the pump and went to check the small basket by the pump and it was about 3/4 of the way full. It is weird that this happened due to the water being higher than normal. I emptied both baskets out and put it all back together. I turned on the pump again for about 5 minutes and turn it off. The small basket by the pump was about half full of leaves. I did the same thing again and the small basket had about 1/4 full. Then the last time just a few leaves. Am I safe to assume that my pump is ok. The pressure is a little above 10 and seems to still be sucking pretty hard. The return jets are still going strong. So do I need to worry about anything or am I just fine?

Thanks.
 
Sounds like all's well :)

The question is how the leaves bypassed the skimmer basket :scratch: (BTW- next time you go to empty the skimmer basket, and it's full, turn off the pump first so that you can more easily remove and empty the basket :wink:

Please let us know if you have further issues with this.
 
waste said:
Sounds like all's well :)

The question is how the leaves bypassed the skimmer basket :scratch: (BTW- next time you go to empty the skimmer basket, and it's full, turn off the pump first so that you can more easily remove and empty the basket :wink:

Please let us know if you have further issues with this.
Click to expand...

Yea not sure how they got passed it as I see no holes in the basket. The only thing I can think is they either got by on the side or through the small small holes at the bottom of the basket. Or maybe the water pushed the basket up slightly and they got in that way.
 
laurandavid09 said:
Yea not sure how they got passed it as I see no holes in the basket. The only thing I can think is they either got by on the side or through the small small holes at the bottom of the basket. Or maybe the water pushed the basket up slightly and they got in that way.
Click to expand...
I used to wonder about that, too. Here's what happens in my pool: The skimmer basket fills up with leaves via suction during pump operation, but when the pump turns off the skimmer basket floats up out of the well and some of the leaves come to the surface or even float back out into the pool. When the pump restarts, normally the basket reseats, the leaves that had fallen out are sucked back in, etc. until I empty the basket. Once in while, however, the basket has risen too far and the suction created when the pump restarts pulls in the leaves ahead of the basket (leaves don't weigh as much.) On several trips I've returned to find the skimmer basket upended with leaves wedged around the sides and layered on top. Only once has this been so severe that the pump filter basket became so clogged with debris that it couldn't prime.
 
With my skimmer, the basket will lock into the skimmer with a slight turn after it is seated so it won't float up when the pump is shut off. You might check to see if yours has that feature as well.
 
Mine came with a weight to keep it from floating.

On the other hand.... we were visiting my SIL last week and their pool has a skimmer that looks like the basket was intended to float. No weir flap, basket is narrower and deeper than I'd expect, with the pump on it's floating about 1/2" under the surface and there is really major skimming action. (I looked at it because I notice the returns were blowing air; the skimmer was plugged with leaves and sucking air. After cleaning it out I spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to make the basket stay down, and there just wasn't any way I could find. But it seemed to work when floating.)
--paulr
 
I'm with Beez, the rock works for me.

I even picked up a couple of smooth, quartz-like ones that get all cleaned up in the skimmer and fun to admire when I dump. (it doesn't take much to entertain me)
 
Mine is like Marks, it has lips that the basket flange locks under with a quarter turn of the basket. Even with that once the basket is completely full there's a small space around the basket that a leaf or two can get by and make it to the pump strainer.

laurandavid -- I agree with the other posters, if you've cleaned out the baskets and the suction and discharge seem normal, everything should be good. You probably want to check the impeller for obstructions but you don't need to be in any hurry to do it.
 

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There's been more leaves in my pump basket than I expected since I recently had cleaned it out. After wondering how the leaves were getting in there, I finally figured it out! I have a suction side cleaner(Navigator) which just sends whatever it picks up directly to the pump basket. I guess I'll have to clean out the pump basket more often than I thought.
 
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