Skimmer issue - leaves collect but don't go into the baskets - help please?

[shacke]

I am not sure what is happening here, and my pool folks haven't a clue.

My skimmers are newish, so I only have a season or so with them.

I can feel suction in the skimmers, and there is good water and debris flow into them. The issue is that the basket doesn't fill with leaves - the leaves just collect in the skimmer well and float on top.

When the shallow skimmer housing was leaking (the source of a long mystery that is now over) and plugged, the deep skimmer was super powerful - like a vacuum!

When they are both on, they seem to work fine, but nothing gets drawn down into the water in the basket.

I have backwashed thinking that would work. The filter pressure is seemingly ok and the backwash didn't do anything.

The pool people were out last year and this year and all they say is: It's the weir doors and they replace or manipulate them. I don't think its the doors. As I said, the leaves get in just fine - they don't get sucked downward.

Can anyone help? They want to come and degrease the filter grid pak thinking the pressure is too high. I don't know how that translates to the skimmer unless there is too much back pressure on the skimmer line. Having said that, the all valves open pressure on the filter is 20psi which is totally normal. I have a floor turbo cleaning system with a bypass valve to regulate the turbo/return pressure. When that is activated the pressure is 30. When turbo is on like that the PSI always jumps.

Thanks for any help on this mystery!

 

[JVTrain]

Do you have a main drain and a method to reduce suction at the main drain to increase skimmer suction? If you have a three way valve, divert more suction to the skimmers. If you have a 2 way valve on the MD, close it almost all the way so it's just pulling light suction at MD.

 

[shacke]

I tried that - barely letting any flow to the MD. It didn't seem to help. I could try to kill the MD entirely and see if that helps. Now that you mention the MD, I had to have a second drain installed when they renovated the pool. Some local code thing. Wonder if that is stealing from the skimmer.

 

[Richard320]

What you're describing is normal, until the leaves get waterlogged and sink. Someone here posted once about using an aquarium net - a tiny leaf rake, basically - to grab the floaters before removing the basket. I just reach in and ush the weir up and the waterlevel drops really fast and all the debris ends up in the basket. Then I lift it up above water level, let go of the weir and get my left arm out, and lift the basket the rest of the way out.

 

[Divin Dave]

yup.
leaves arent waterlogged enough yet and wont sink until they get that way

 

[shacke]

yup.
leaves arent waterlogged enough yet and wont sink until they get that way

Hmmmm. Some smart pool folk here. I will take that as all is fine then and stop pestering the pool co.

Still, was never an issue before with my pool. Now, during the falling flower and leaf season, the leaves are backed up all over the pool outside the skimmer throat like a traffic jam behind an accident - because they don't sink. Maybe it's something related to water temp, etc.

like I said before, when one skimmer was plugged closed, the other was working great, with the leaves collecting in the basket like champs. To the point where I needed to keep an eye because the pump cavitated when it got too full.

 

[Divin Dave]

Yep,
when you open the 2nd skimmer, you're effectively cutting the suction ability of the other one in half.

Hmmmm. Some smart pool folk here. I will take that as all is fine then and stop pestering the pool co.

Still, was never an issue before with my pool. Now, during the falling flower and leaf season, the leaves are backed up all over the pool outside the skimmer throat like a traffic jam behind an accident - because they don't sink. Maybe it's something related to water temp, etc.

like I said before, when one skimmer was plugged closed, the other was working great, with the leaves collecting in the basket like champs. To the point where I needed to keep an eye because the pump cavitated when it got too full.