The Dragonfly Skimmer

[Davegvg]

I just ordered a Dragonfly Skimmer.

I've been quite happy with my Polaris LCS barracuda combo, and am eager to see if this single device can indeed do as good a job.

Obviously it cannot pick up material on the bottom, but theoretically said material doesn't get there to start with.
This seems to only make sense to me if the pump is run 24x7 which can become an economic problem.

I will be running low wattage tests to determine the rolloff point at which it becomes ineffective and will post these and a video similar to the one for the polaris LCS. Currently I can get decent but not stellar performance out of my combo starting at 350 watts.

Well see........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLdwxCZDvzI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYN92oAcPgc



Dave

 

[Davegvg]

4 days now credit cards been charged....

Dave

 

[Davegvg]

Dragonfly arrived while I was in Vegas. 7 days after order.

To be honest the inside of the unit next to the flapper looked pretty beat up. (See pict)

It took a total of 15 minutes for me to set the unit up.

So far so good, at 750 watts (1 HP or solar tap on) the unit is indeed a powerfull skimmer. Much more so than the wall unit, a poolskim unit, or the LCS component. It was pulling debris against a the wind this afternoon with surprising speed.

The filter runs about 4lb of pressure higher at the the same rpm as the lcs g4 combo.

Ill run low power effectiveness tests soon.





Dave

 

[rmklaw]

I just installed one also. However, I don't seem to find the right depth and optimal flow. I am running at 65 GPM and the three sides are about surface level so water channels through the center V of each channel. I don't see lots of flow or pick up. How is your setup?

 

[Davegvg]

Setup is a bit tricky- try this.

try this first- Hold the thing upside down underwater- and get ALL the air bubbles out of the floats rock the unit side to side as there are 2 sets of holes in each float.

Then if that doesnt work- Then raise the floats all the way up so the platform is as low as possible.

This should start the flapper moving.

I get the feeling though that this isnt a 100 workable device in every situation though.

I took some video Ill post.

Dave

 

[rmklaw]

Thanks. I did all that and with the floats all the way up the valve stays closed. If I just raise one of the floats slightly (slight tilt) the water level goes u to just above the three sides and then it drops as the valve closes. Sees to work that way but the flow is not that strong.

How low are the three sides below water level?

 

[Davegvg]

Maybe you have simply too much flow?

When I run mine at 750 watts the pulsing slows down and turns into a waterfall action with little to no pulsing.

When I turn the pump rpm down and pull 450 watts - it starts to pulse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv6EqDXOIw8

 

[rmklaw]

Thanks. I will try again tomorrow. How far below the surface are the three flat sides?

 

[Davegvg]

Thanks. I will try again tomorrow. How far below the surface are the three flat sides?

If you go by the marks on the floats -the waterline is the 4th mark up from the bottom.

Looks about an inch.

This is of course with the pump off.

Dave

 

[Davegvg]

Re: The Dragonfly Skimmer - optimizing

I can get this unit to perform very well at 260 watts of power @ 1950 RPM.
At 1900 RPM the unit stops cycling all the way and water never flows over the top- so thats seems a bit to low.
I could play with the speeds in 5RPM increments between 1900 and 1950 but I dont see the point at this stage unless I feel like being a complete propellerhead about it.

The setting also works well up to about 800 watts of power and then stops cycling and just creates a waterfall effect into it.

RMKLAW- The instructions talk about a "bypass" if you cant get it working, and based on what I learned I think at 65 GPM you may be pushing more than the unit is really designed for or it may just need further tweaking. It seems the lower tray being underwater is optimum for low flow since I can go down to this level. Maybe raise the flat side as high as you can for this much flow?


Dave

 

[rmklaw]

Thanks Dave. I will play with the flow since I can regulate the vaccum line where the skimmer is attached to.

 

[Guest]

Re: The Dragonfly Skimmer - optimizing

.
I could play with the speeds in 5RPM increments between 1900 and 1950 but I dont see the point at this stage unless I feel like being a complete propellerhead about it.
Dave

Too late; you're already there :lol: Are you a motorhead as well? Something tells me you might be interested in quite a few mechanical things, not just this!

 

[Davegvg]

Re: The Dragonfly Skimmer - optimizing

.
I could play with the speeds in 5RPM increments between 1900 and 1950 but I dont see the point at this stage unless I feel like being a complete propellerhead about it.
Dave

Too late; you're already there :lol: Are you a motorhead as well? Something tells me you might be interested in quite a few mechanical things, not just this!

Actually you are right!

How'd you guess?

Boats, dirt bikes, quads, toy haulers etc. toys are toys!

 

[Guest]

Re: The Dragonfly Skimmer - optimizing

.
I could play with the speeds in 5RPM increments between 1900 and 1950 but I dont see the point at this stage unless I feel like being a complete propellerhead about it.
Dave

Too late; you're already there :lol: Are you a motorhead as well? Something tells me you might be interested in quite a few mechanical things, not just this!

Actually you are right!

How'd you guess?

Boats, dirt bikes, quads, toy haulers etc. toys are toys!

Nice looking floater My jet boat is long gone, but the Jeep and dirt bikes remain! Boys will be boys

 

[Davegvg]

Thanks Sim! (we need to hook up!)

As for the Dragonfly Its a REALLY effective skimmer,best Ive ever used actually - but I still need a bottom cleaner. Some stuff sinks quickly and misses, and the nightly shutdown allows surface floaters to land, soak and sink for an extended period of time.

The australian site shows these components but the US site does not. I would be happy to purchase them from anyone who can duplicate this setup.

If I can find a way to add the bottom cleaner- Ill have found the perfect suction side combo.

Dave

 

[Davegvg]

This device doesn't seem as consistent as say a bottom cleaner in regards to its performance at a given power consumption.

I saw the unit basically sitting there doing nothing at its 260 Watt setting.
To be fair water was moving over the edges, but the unit was not cycling up and down so it is "somewhat effective" when running like this but not fully.

I bumped it 100 watts to 360 (about a half HP) and it came back to life and seems consistent at this level- but.... will it stay that way?

This is turning out to be a rather finicky device.

Uncle Dave

 

[Davegvg]

Yaaay!!!!

360 watts and the unit was fine today - This part is consistent.

Boooo!!!

Problem is that if I "juice" the solar tap speed any more than 2800 rpm, or more than 800 watts - the unit stops cycling.

Although I this is enough for solar to be effective- the faster the water flows for solar the better net net - Im compromising performance for cleaning.



Uncle Dave

 

[Davegvg]

I added another 2 lengths of hose to see what would happen.
The Dragonfly does an amazing job of moving around the pool-it makes a full circle in about an hour under all the ambient conditions Ive encountered in the last few weeks - to be honest I do not know why.

There is very little directionality to my flow as I dont have eyeballs in the returns but am simply allowing them to dump straight into the pool.

Ive settled on a 360 watt normal filter speed and a 700 watt solar tap speed.
I get decent heating performance at this speed and the dragonfly is fully functional- any more rpm/watts and dragonfly starts losing efficiency.
It also works out to a nice savings in that "full speed" is about 7% "cheaper" than my previous load and normal is about 50% cheaper.

For the numerically inclined the specifics are- My pool hit 84 today at 1:30 starting from 77 at 8:45.
Approx yield of 1.1M total BTU about 235K btu per hour off the solar.


Surface quality is absolutely stellar -insects, fuzz, dust, helicopter, leaves, pollen anything that floats so far this thing has nailed. even at 360 watts it can pull debris against a breeze pretty well.

I find I need to run the bottom cleaner about once a week for a few hours in my environment.- some stuff sinks too quick- not much though.

the dragonfly lives up to most of it promises with only a few caveats quite nicely.

An especially solid pool investment if you have control over flow.

Uncle Dave

 

[geekgranny]

Uncle Dave, Where does all the debris ultimately end up? You may have talked about that but have to run and go work on my friend's pool, currently being initially "BBBed". Have to backwash and put in the new grids (my last year ones I don't need as have a new bigger filter). She's feeding me Sloppy Joes, something DH doesn't allow around here. (He's know as the "low carb natzi") So that part will compensate, somewhat, for the pain of working on her filter, with my bum knee.

Anyway, if it ends up in the pump pot basket, I wouldn't be able to use one because of too much stuff, round the clock. That's one of the great things about the Pool Skim. It keep the stuff from going towards and/or into the pump basket.

I'm glad you are getting it adjusted to your liking.

I just went down to check my pump to see the number that are working best to keep my Pool Skim drawing pretty well. Inteliflo VF. Darn thing is really sensitive. Alerting that I need to backwash so numbers are not usual. It usually slows down the flow when that happens but still keeps enough to adequately supply the Polaris booster. The fine stuff I get in my pool, even with the Quad 80 is demanding a backwash weekly. The cellulose media doesn't let very much pass through. So contrary to what is claimed, with my microscopic stuff, and with the cellulose catching virtually all of it, my backwashing intervals have not gotten longer. It seems to work too well.

gg=alice

 

[Davegvg]

Good question GG.

More than 50% of the time I use a hayward large capacity leaf canister-on the end of the first hose-I use the one with the plastic grate not the bag because I want the really small debris completely out of the pool, what slips through this usually gets hung up in my epumps filter basket - which is absolutely enormous- MUCH larger than my whisperflows basket.
I find the actual size of the pump annoying, and not as well packaged as Pentair's offering- but the basket is waay nicer.

Note: I had pentair whisperflow 1HP prior to this pump and I loved it, so the above comment is in no way a disparagement of Pentairs pump, but a realistic comparison of this particular feature along with its downside.
I still have it as a standby replacement now.

I havent had the dragonfly in full leaf season so I may find I need a Poolskim, or 2 before clogging - but thats later....

Of course the polaris LCS I have has a much nicer integrated basket, but with limited capacity for the bottom cleaner, and the skimmer isnt nearly as good........

I only need to backwash a few times a year, with a de 60 so my dust influx MUST be substantially less than yours (ouch! brutal) although Ill give you run for the money on helicopters!

Careful on the "too well" you may jinx it!

Uncle Dave