What happens when water drops below skimmers

May 24, 2012
15
Dallas, TX
I wanted to know what type of pump damage to expect when the water level drops below the skimmer level? The reason I ask is that the other day a pipe broke and was leaking water all day long. I didn’t notice until I came home from work, and by then, the water level was just BARELY above the skimmer line. A few more minutes and the water level would have dropped below the skimmers.
My pool has two surface skimmers and a bottom drain. I have float valves but I don’t know what good they will do since the bottom drain runs off one of the skimmers.
 
When the water gets too low the pump will lose prime. After running for a while without prime the pump will get very hot and the plastic will start to deform. Given a while it deforms enough to destroy the pump. Many automation systems have a feature to shutdown the pump after some amount of time without water flow to protect against this risk.
 
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.