Hey TFP, hoping to get some advice on how to proceed with a broken skimmer fitting. Little bit of background on my pool and the problem.
- Pool is a vinyl liner pool, liner is only about 2-3 yrs old but the pool is probably 30-40 yrs old. Steel wall construction, plumbed with black poly, which seems to be super common up here in Canada with older pools.
- I only moved into this house last year, had issues with air bubbles coming from the returns and a leak detection confirmed a leak on the suction side. They put a bunch of epoxy inside the hole (which I can feel) and provided me the following details in their repair quote “Remove and replace broken fitting under skimmer”
- Skimmer is a Jacuzzi (Carvin) brand with 2 holes at the bottom, the main drain hole is plugged because no main drain for this pool.
I had a bunch of concrete work I had to do around the pool and patio this year so I just dug up the surrounding concrete and dirt to expose the skimmer and plumbing to replace the broken fitting.
Now as far as I can tell, the broken “fitting” is the piece that extends from the bottom of the skimmer for the pipe to connect to, so this means the skimmer itself is cracked. I need to confirm this still but the other issue is that I think the fitting the pipe goes into the skimmer appears to be glued right in, so I have no idea how this could even be fixed without replacing the entire skimmer.
My question is, if this is in fact the case, can I just plug the back hole currently being used on the skimmer and plumb the line from the pump to the front hole in the skimmer where a main drain would normally be connected instead? I came across another post on the forums (Why are there two holes at the bottom of my skimmer?) and it seems like this is acceptable, and referred to as a reserve line?
Appreciate any help or suggestions!
- Pool is a vinyl liner pool, liner is only about 2-3 yrs old but the pool is probably 30-40 yrs old. Steel wall construction, plumbed with black poly, which seems to be super common up here in Canada with older pools.
- I only moved into this house last year, had issues with air bubbles coming from the returns and a leak detection confirmed a leak on the suction side. They put a bunch of epoxy inside the hole (which I can feel) and provided me the following details in their repair quote “Remove and replace broken fitting under skimmer”
- Skimmer is a Jacuzzi (Carvin) brand with 2 holes at the bottom, the main drain hole is plugged because no main drain for this pool.
I had a bunch of concrete work I had to do around the pool and patio this year so I just dug up the surrounding concrete and dirt to expose the skimmer and plumbing to replace the broken fitting.
Now as far as I can tell, the broken “fitting” is the piece that extends from the bottom of the skimmer for the pipe to connect to, so this means the skimmer itself is cracked. I need to confirm this still but the other issue is that I think the fitting the pipe goes into the skimmer appears to be glued right in, so I have no idea how this could even be fixed without replacing the entire skimmer.
My question is, if this is in fact the case, can I just plug the back hole currently being used on the skimmer and plumb the line from the pump to the front hole in the skimmer where a main drain would normally be connected instead? I came across another post on the forums (Why are there two holes at the bottom of my skimmer?) and it seems like this is acceptable, and referred to as a reserve line?
Appreciate any help or suggestions!
