I will be trying to close myself for the first time this year. My pool has two skimmers; one of the skimmers is apparently an "old style anthony skimmer." The skimmer is connected to the main drain, and I can rotate a plastic valve piece to adjust the amount that is pulled from the main drain and the skimmer. To seal off the main drain, you have to reach down into the skimmer pipe with a plug at the tip of your fingers. Then you apply another plug above that to seal off the skimmer.
My question is, how do I go about winterizing this system, namely the main drain? Even with everything else plugged off, I'm guessing that air blown from the pump will never make it out the drain and will instead escape through the skimmer. If I plug the top skimmer hole, I supposed I could force air out from the main drain, but then to plug the main drain I would have to quickly unplug the skimmer, and reach down in with a different plug to plug the main drain. By the time I would do this, the water from the main drain would surely have pushed back through up into the piping.
What am I missing? Is there a better way to do this?
My question is, how do I go about winterizing this system, namely the main drain? Even with everything else plugged off, I'm guessing that air blown from the pump will never make it out the drain and will instead escape through the skimmer. If I plug the top skimmer hole, I supposed I could force air out from the main drain, but then to plug the main drain I would have to quickly unplug the skimmer, and reach down in with a different plug to plug the main drain. By the time I would do this, the water from the main drain would surely have pushed back through up into the piping.
What am I missing? Is there a better way to do this?
