Convert pop up heads into 'main drains'

[delsol468]

Morning all-

Backstory: New homeowner w/ pool. Old school pool that had the main drain plumbed up into the skimmer and down the skimmer. Used a diverter back in the day. Looks like this diverter snapped off and they plugged the skimmer hole for the main drain line. Pool Boy that completed acid wash to open the pool advised that the main drain was not plugged in the deep end. My thought was that we would dig down find the main drain line and plumb a seperate line to the equipment. Took the time and effort to dig the ditch, dig the hole to find the main drain line - the day before we plumbed the new main drain I dived down into the deep end to uncover the main drain line and found that hole was also sealed. sealed with some heavy duty stuff that isnt going to be removed.


Now we had to create a secondary plan. Since the caretaker system had been 86'd. We found the two pop ups closest to the deep end and have plumbed them to be suction ports.

What do you guys think? I've been searching the interwebs and have not found any posts like this. I doubt I am a pioneer on this subject.

 

[gwegan]

Lets start with the fact that you don't need a main drain. They are nice to have and everything but you don't need one.

Are you getting good circulation using only the skimmer? Are there areas that look cloudy or have debris?

You only have 14K of water so you should be able to filter that just fine with your pump and filter.

Where are the returns? You may want to be pointing the returns down so that they force water deep and you get better circulation.

That said there are folks who will come in and drill out that "heavy duty stuff" underwater. Look up the pool dentist in San Diego.

You can install side wall drains if you really want drains -- that may require draining the pool.

Remember any drain you add or modify now must conform to the VGB Act which has several requirements.

But with 14K and no circulation problems (no dead zones) I probably wouldn't do anything.