Main Drain valve?

[jhever]

I'm a new pool owner and just picked up the MX8 side suction to help keep my pool clean. After installing it I noticed it was running slowly. The manual says to close the main drain. My question is how do I do this? I only see one knob on my system and I have no idea what it does. Here is a picture. Any idea what the knob is for? Is that the main drain valve? I only have one skimmer.

Thanks!

[attachment=0:3ti0ezcz]Pool.JPG[/attachment:3ti0ezcz]

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

You have two sources of water (suction lines) coming into the pump, one of which has a valve on it. They might be two different skimmers, or the skimmer and a main drain, or any of several other combinations. The best way to find out what is what is to try closing the valve and see what happened.

 

[jhever]

Thanks! Whats strange is that I have these two lines (skimmer and drain (I assume)) coming into the pump but only that one knob. I just want to close the main drain for the suction side cleaner. I was afraid to mess with it but I'll try and do that tonight after work.

I found this site last night and love it! So much great information. As a new pool owner its overwhelming but this site helps a lot.

 

[Beamup]

Do make sure you turn the pump off before manipulating the valve. Probably obvious, but it can definitely cause problems if you forget. Not that I specifically know anything about that.

 

[kc5grw]

I'd be willing to bet it's the main drain but it's odd that they don't have valves on both lines. It's nice to be able to shut off the skimmer if you want to drain the pool for some reason.

I can say I absolutely hate those stupid gate valves. I had those on my main drain, spa drain and skimmer line. Takes forever to open and close the dang things. I just replaced them with ball valves which are much easier to deal with. Now I just need to replace the return valves. That'll probably happen within the next year when I decided to install an SWG on the pool.

 

[jhever]

Thanks! I'm sure I'll have to redo a lot of this later as the pump is the only fairly new piece of equipment.