Intex manual says petroleum jelly... seriously?

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frogabog

frogabog

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Jul 16, 2010
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Portland, Oregon
I'm supposed to lube these joints/threads with petroleum jelly? Huh?? What part about petroleum being good for plastic did I miss?

Can I use the o-ring lube instead, or is it too sticky?

Intex doesn't provide much in the way of hosing. I am having a hard time finding a spot for the sand filter n pump unless I move the ladder yet again. I could use three times the amount of hose they included.

I should just stick it over the side and weigh the suction end down huh? What a PITA. If I didn't hate the dumb stock pumps so much I would not bother. Maybe I ought to just cut new holes in the other side. Would it be bad to cut an inlet near the bottom and return it around mid water level? This would leave the skimmer pump (1000gph) near the ladder nestled nicely out of the way.

My yard is tiny. argh!
 
They are trying to find something that will work at all that a home owner will have heard of already and find easily in a grocery store.

Vaseline is not to bad on rigid plastic, though hardly ideal. It is only a serious problem for soft rubbery parts like o-rings and gaskets.
 
There are rubber gaskets in very close proximity to the threads and it's sealing up against/near the vinyl liner. I guess it's not the end of the world though.

No o-ring lube? I can locate that... dunno where the baby powder scented vaseline is actually.
 
Keep it simple. I did'nt use any lube on my connections and I have no leaks. If you have a tiny leak worry about it then and find some O-ring lube at your hardware store.

As far as the hoses mine are too long although more is better than not enough.

Just my two cents, dump the stock filter and plumb the sand filter to the skimmer. Trust me you will be happy with the performance. the best way to keep the bugs off the floor is to catch them in the skimmer before the fall to the floor.

Keeping that stock filter would be like putting a candle next to a reading lamp. The candle would add nothing to the light of the lamp. I run my sand filter for 4 hours a day on my 2200 gal pool and it looks better that 24 hours of the cartridge filter.

Plumbing additional holes for the sand filter would be a PITA when you could use the original holes where you have the stock filter. Trust me, you will be able to run that filter for less that 12 hours and have better water clarity than you ever thought possible.

After I saw how the sand filter worked it made me wonder why Intex dosent make it standard equipment on all pools. Price would go up slightly for the pool but it would eliminate alot of complaints people have with Intex.
 
My situation is different than yours. I have no trees overhead, Just bugs.

If you need the 2 pump set up you have I would still plumb the sand filter into the original holes of the pool. Move your ladder and stock pump. Might take some rearranging of the yard, but it will give better performance and be easier than plumbing new lines for the sand filter. Maybee you can find somekind of T connection to hook up to the skimmer so both pumps can run though it.
 
I have a maple tree right over my pool and i only run my sand filter 6 hours a day and it is sparkling clean yes we have to actually use a leaf net and skim the water surface everyday and no matter how good your pump is you have to vacuum .

What i have never understood is why people want to hang stuff over the side and complicate things if you ask me why i don't use algaecide i would answer because i don't need it well i haven't needed an intex cartridge filter since i got a real filter. Trust us hook it to the skimmer and get rig of the toy pump you won't regret it.
 
The plan is to run the sand filter on the skimmer. Problem is finding space. Additionally we like the cool multi-directional eyeballs that came with it so we're going to modify the ports (cut) and use those instead of the current blah return eye. It only points in the correct direction because the hose bends it that way.
 
Take a look at crookm's thread. There is one listed as custom PVC adapter. Towards the end of the thread Raza makes a great find with an PVC electrical conduit coupler. This will let you make mods without cutting.

I have the aerator and two returns on my pool. Even if you don't need the aerator. I have one return 6 inches or so below water line and one towards the bottom of the pool pointed towards the middle. For my pool a single return was to strong. It made a current that pushed debris past the skimmer.

Take a look at his threads. It's all posted better than I can explain it. Supper simple to due. The intex adapters seem a PITA to me and you can't customize them.
 
I did the same thing Frog i cut the holes larger and added the larger return they work much better . I held a bowl on the inside and lost very little water while cutting them make sure you cut them large enough a tight fit doesn't work.

I also used some pipe thread compound on the threads but i am not going to say it is necessary i just wanted to do it.

Getting ready to hard plumb now and change the return fittings again instead of adapting to the intex threads i found regular pool returns that are threaded standard 1 1/2 inch NPT..
 

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My 2 cents on the matter....

I had originally connected my sand filter to the surface skimmer, but after seeing it float out of water (because of the easy set ring) and have my 2-day old pump sucking air I knew I had to do something. After figuring out exactly how I can fabricate the larger strainer and plumb it with 1-1/2" PVC I was all set to have both a bottom drain and a hose going to the surface skimmer, along with a ball valve regulating it. Of course all of that plumbing would be in the pool even though I was able to keep it all neat and close to the wall.

Then I looked more closely at your setup with dual pumps and started to think more about what exactly I was trying to accomplish. I wanted to gaurantee that my sand filter would not suck air and I needed to have my skimmer going for long periods. So, I scratched all of the plumbing that I was about to do and connected the sand filter to the main drain. I then used my stock 800gph pump for the skimmer with the hoses going over the side. Since the skimmer connects over the side as well I zip tied the hose nicely along the bracket.

The end result is I can run my main pump for only a couple hours/day, but have my skimmer run for as long as I want. I'm looking at 100W for the small pump vs. 600W on the sand filter. Next I'm going to make a sprinkler for the skimmer return too. Less wear and tear on the main filter with less energy consumption too.
 
No doubt there is value to a 2 speed pump. My point was a skimmer is an integral part of the filter system and if one pump is going to be thrown over the side without a skimmer make it the lesser of the two filters.

My cheap summer escapes pool came with a thru wall skimmer. Don't know why intex can't make that standard. When I upsize the pool next it will be an intex ultraframe and I will put 2 thru wall skimmers on it with the 1600 gph sand filter and stock 1500 gph cartridge.

George, with the sand filter running how much cleaner does the cartridge stay? How often do you have to clean the cartridge?
 
::epds:: ::epds:: ::epds::

OK, I'm gonna watch y'all discuss this because I have the same question BB does for George, I do want full time skimming if possible, and everyone here left for the next few hours so I won't get to installing or cutting holes any time soon.

I added two friends up there to help me eat popcorn as well...
 
My pool is exceptionally clean with the sand filter. I had picked up the higher rated 16" 1 week before the Walmart deal was posted. Note too that my pool is only 2800g and I run the filter for 4 hours/night. I can comment fully about the state of the cartridge filter tomorrow when I do some pool maintenance as I've only been using the 2 pump setup for a few days now. Also, today I received some skimmer socks to try out. I may even get rid of the cartridge completely and just use the socks as my goal for the skimmer is to catch the surface debris and not actually filter the water.
 
I can now comment about the Intex cartridge - I couldn't see any build up of any matter at all and the filter was still white. It was only completely loaded with surface debris, such as bugs, grass, etc. I guess you can say the sand filter is doing a great job! I must say the water is pretty d*mn clear even when looking around under water. I rinsed off the filter and put a sock on the skimmer. I also moved the skimmer further away so it is just off center of the pool's main return which was the best I could do without having the pump in clear view from around the yard. I'll check it again in a few days to see the results and go from there. The skimmer is on a timer to run the same time as the sand filter in the evening and another 4 hours in the early morning.

Overall, a great success! My next step is to connect the skimmer return to a fountain.
 
Hey George,

I'm still not hooked up. Got distracted out looking at camper trailers today.

But... I recall a poster here a while back removing the little "strainer" area in the skimmer housing, under the basket. I find that leaves get past the skimmer basket, and once lodged into this second strainer the pump pulls air and functions badly. Originally I thought this was a bad idea, but I'm considering it now.

Leaves are my bane... I probably get at least 5/hr or more and three or more/day of the tinier variety on that second strainer. They would plug up in the cartridge, eventually.

So, you're up for being the guinea pig and removing the second strainer out so I'll know if it's a good or bad idea, right? LOL, jk. What do you think though?
 
Are you referring to the suction port at the bottom of the skimmer "container" right before the hose? I don't have a leaf problem, but I don't know how you're getting them down there either. The way I see it is they would have to be pulled in from below the surface of the water to reach that point and even then it would be tight as the leaf would have to be pulled in on edge. In any case, if you remove that then all you're going to do is clog up a hose or the filter itself so I don't see the point. I'd rather have to pull out my skimmer basket each day and clear any leaves vs. flushing out a clog.
 
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