Skimmer suction

[MirGSS]

We have two skimmers in our pool; one in the shallow end and one in the deep on opposite sides of the pool.

This morning I went to vacuum and there was little to no suction from the deep end skimmer. Is that normal? If not, what is the first step to diagnose/fix?

Pardon typos; sheep have hooves, not hands.

 

[jblizzle]

Impossible to say ... depends how your plumbing is setup.

How many suction lines do you have in front of the pump?
I see you only have the 2 skimmers and no floor drain, right?

 

[MirGSS]

If we DO have a main drain, it doesn't work and I can't see it. [emoji14]. But I don't think we have one.

Looks like there are two pipes that form a Y junction then go into the pump.

I tried sticking my hand in the suction hole of the skimmer (our other one had started to jam up with those helicopter things) to no avail. What's next?

Pardon typos; sheep have hooves, not hands.

 

[Texas Splash]

We had another reader recently who had slow/plugged water flow from the skimmer to the pump. Turned-out she had an obstruction (frog or something) that got it there. She eventually got it out. Is there any chance that something got past your skimmer basket? Also, have you vacuumed lately and used that skimmer for your vacuum hose? That's a prime time for someone to suck-up something rather large that can get stuck in the pipe effecting the water flow. Just a thought anyways.

 

[MirGSS]

Definitely could have been. I tried using that skimmer to vacuum and at first it had low suction but then it had none.

So where do I check next? I'd prefer to avoid dismantling the whole pool.

Pardon typos; sheep have hooves, not hands.

 

[jblizzle]

Add pictures of your pluming setup.

You need to try to understand how the pool is plumbed in order to troubleshoot.

 

[MirGSS]

Ok. Not sure if this is overload, but here it is. Note that heater is not part of the plumbing and apparently does not work.

Pardon typos; sheep have hooves, not hands.

 

[MirGSS]

Okay. So I discovered that the skimmer without suction was the one on the left, without the easy turn handle. I got a wrench out and lo and behold! The skimmer valve was closed.

So I opened it up and started running the pump. Checked the skimmer and noticed two things.

1. Skimmer kept filling to a certain point, then draining all of a sudden, then filling again.

2. When I felt around, I felt suction from the hole closest to the pool, not from the one further away.

Ideas? Without a main drain, I have no idea where that front hole might go. How do I find out?

Pardon typos; sheep have hooves, not hands.

 

[jrs_diesel]

Two hole in the bottom of the skimmer? I have that in my pool, and the hole nearest the pool goes to my main drain, the other hole to the pump. I you don't have a main drain, the second hole should be plugged or blocked off.

As far as the filling/draining thing. The only thing I can think of there is that your wier (skimmer door) is either stuck or sticking in place. It should freely move from wide open to fully shut. It has a float built into the top of it so that when the pump is running the top edge of the wier is just below the water surface. The water level in the skimmer should be fairly constant and you should see water moving when the pump runs.

Hope this helps.

 

[MirGSS]

So.....here's the thing. Our skimmers don't have wiers. It was built in 1970 I guess so I'm not sure if that's a thing where they hadn't started doing wiers yet??

As soon as I finish trying to clean my filter, I'm gonna try sticking a hose in the skimmer holes to see what happens.

Pardon typos; sheep have hooves, not hands.

 

[borjis]

you can get generic weir doors with spring loaded feet (just measure your skimmer square area) on amazon for 15 bucks.

Mine was missing so I got one and the skimmer works a lot better now at drawing in surface debris
and drawing down into the basket instead of floating around then coming out of the skimmer when
the pump goes off.

 

[MirGSS]

Upon closer inspection, it appears I am a liar. Both skimmers do in fact have weirs. I just never noticed them because they are stuck open.

So I'll work on that. In the meantime, is there an easy way to discover where each skimmer hole goes?

Pardon typos; sheep have hooves, not hands.

 

[jrs_diesel]

Not easily. The hole with water getting sucked into it will be obvious, as that one goes to the pump. The other hole may be plugged, but if it isn't then you may have once had a main drain that got capped off.

 

[jblizzle]

Do you have a hole in the pool below the skimmers that could be an equalizer valve?

Usually that surging water behavior in a skimmer is due to the water level being too low or the weir getting stuck closed.

 

[MirGSS]

Nope. Nothing like that.

Just turned the pump on with the skimmer line open and it's working FINE. OF COURSE. Wonder if there was air in the line from winter? Like the professional pool guys we hired to open our pool never bothered to open and unplug that skimmer because it didn't have an easy turn thing?

Pardon typos; sheep have hooves, not hands.