2nd hole in skimmer leads to wall outlet..?

[rcy]

My inlaws bought a house that came with a rectangular pool. There are two outlets in one wall, one in the deep end, one in the shallow end. The skimmer is in the deep end. I have only ever seen water coming out of the deep end jet when the pump is running. The pool company that closes for them had no idea what the other jet was for either.

The pool skimmer has two inlets? (two holes) in the bottom. When the pump is running, there is only suction in one of the holes. I opened the pool for them recently, and on a whim, I shot a jet of water with the garden hose through the other inlet in the skimmer. Lo and behold, water shot out of the jet in the shallow end.

Any idea why the pool would be plumbed like this? What purpose would having the second skimmer hole plumbed to a pool jet serve?

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Is there a main drain? Could be an equalizer line for the skimmer.

 

[rcy]

No..no main drain. Just two jets in the same wall, deep end and shallow end, and the skimmer in the deep end with the two inlets in the skimmer. One inlet leads to pump, the other to the jet in the shallow end.

 

[Guest]

Sounds like an equalizer line to me. Is it "open", or does it have a cover on it? Perhaps a picture?

 

[rcy]

Unfortunately, I don't live too close to the inlaws (I guess that might be fortunately depending...lol). But no, there is no cover on the second hole. It's open. So two holes in skimmer, one leads to pump, one leads to jet in shallow end wall. Both holes are open.

What is the function of the equalizer line. If I let the water level run below the skimmer, the skimmer gets sucked dry and the pump loses prime? Is the equalizer line supposed to suck water from the shallow end to prevent this from happening? Doesn't seem to work then.

 

[waste]

On paper, the water in the pool will come up through that nonsuction pipe to equalize with the pool level. In reality, it doesn't work and you still lose prime