Had an ephipany this morning with my skimmer!!

[heckofagator]

Wasn't sure where to post this but I'm so happy I had to post somewhere.

We had all of the pool equipment replaced recently but I've always been unimpressed with the skimmer performance. Water just seemed to sit there and gently swirl around at the top. Debris would just float right by the skimmer door.

I almost got sucked into purchasing a Skim-A-Round but the reviews held me back. So I searched here on how to improve skimmer performance and one thing, of course, was a good functioning Weir door.

So I went out and messed with ours. The door seems very tight and is stuck mostly wide open/down. But giving it a little force and closing it a little bit, I started to hear a little activity in the skimmer and stuff was really flowing in! I was amazed. This is how I pictured a good functioning skimmer working. I sat and watched stuff get pulled into the skimmer for a couple minutes.

So I guess I need to address the Weir door. I read there were some replacements on Amazon so I'm going to go look there now. But I'm worried that the door opening is just a little smaller than the door, hence the reason why this can't fully close and why I had to push on it pretty good to get it to close a little. But I think I'm on the right path. But this debris on the surface was really just bugging me so this just made my day.

 

[Texas Splash]

Nice you seemed to crack the code on that skimmer performance. Hard to know why the original weir was sticky. Maybe ground movement effected the skimmer mouth opening, or the weir itself was slightly out of tolerance. But now that you see how it "should" work, you're on the right path.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Heck,

The Weir door is what makes a skimmer... "Skim". Without an operating weir door, the skimmer has no surface skimming action.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[proavia]

You can always remove the weir door, sand down the areas that are binding and then reinstall the weir door.
The weir door needsto swing freely from fully closed to fully open - no binding at all.

 

[heckofagator]

Yes that's a good idea....

Water level should be about half way up the skimmer opening right?

 

[heckofagator]

I removed the weir door and the springs and was able to cut off about a 1/4" so now it can move up and down freely.

Just got a new basket today and some hair nets and trying this out. Its still not super powerful, no vortex or anything like when you shut the Weir door a little, but I'm guessing you don't want a waterfall in there, either. Although it looks cool like you're pulling in everything, I guess that's a good way to suck up air, too.

I took this video. Does this look about right for water activity? There's just some movement on the surface. Top of the basket is about 4-5" below the water line. In the pool, the water line is about half up the wall tile and about 80-85% up the skimmer door opening. Maybe a bit too high?

link to video of skimmer

 

[Jimrahbe]

Heck,

With VS pump running at low RPM, you won't get a vortex, nor do you need one, for the skimmer to work. You just need a little patience. Just let it work..

The higher up the water level is on the weir door the less skimming action you get. The lower the water level is, the more skimming action you get.

In the middle of the door is about the right balance between the two. If you have an auto fill, running closer to the bottom of the door, would be better. I don't have an auto fill and want to make sure the water level never gets too low.

You video looks about right to me.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Pool_Medic]

Most pools have the water level too high, skimmers were designed to have the water half way up the mouth.

 

[heckofagator]

thanks to you both. We don't have an autofill. Someone told me keep the water level about half way up the tiles so I added a little water a couple weeks ago but that ends up filling the skimmer mouth to the top. I'm going to start to use the skimmer mouth as a secondary gauge now too.

We have a walkway on the 2nd floor that goes by the pool that I'm on several times a day and with the FL sun, I constantly see all of the stuff on the pool surface. It doesn't look bad under normal conditions but I seem to always catch the reflections of everything on the surface, so I've been playing with the return jets and skimmer to try and get all of the water thru the skimmer and filters that I can.

Also just got some hair nets to use over the skimmer back so also super curious to see what kind of stuff those pick up.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Heck,

If you shut off your main drain, more water will pass through the skimmers.

I like to have the wall returns pointed so that they try to make the pool look like a flushing toilet bowl, but obviously at a much, much slower rate of swirl. This helps drag debris past the skimmers.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[heckofagator]

Heck,

If you shut off your main drain, more water will pass through the skimmers.

I like to have the wall returns pointed so that they try to make the pool look like a flushing toilet bowl, but obviously at a much, much slower rate of swirl. This helps drag debris past the skimmers.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Thanks, yep. I'm pulling 80 percent from the skimmer and the rest from the spa drain. The main drain is plugged. I would have it all pull from the skimmer but the skimmer drain can't keep up with the 3hp pump when it tries to prime in the morning so we had to open up the spa drain a little.

Pool is a weird trapazoid shape and we only have 2 jets so I seem to miss some corners but still playing around with the aiming.

 

[mknauss]

Lower the prime rpm on the pump.
You should not have the spa drain open in pool mode.

 

[heckofagator]

Interesting, ok. I guess I can do that from Intellicenter? I have not been deep into some of those menus yet.

Any starting rpm to suggest or will I just have to play with it?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Heck..

I have two pools without main drains and a single skimmer with 1.5" plumbing and 3HP IntelliFlo pumps. They have never come close to not priming due to lack of water from the skimmer. You have something wrong, but I have no idea what.

My prime speeds are set at the default that comes with the pump, but you can set the prime speed lower if you wanted.

Thanks

Jim R.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Any starting rpm to suggest or will I just have to play with it?

Heck,

I'd start at 3,000 and see how well it works with the spa drain closed.

Jim R..

 

[heckofagator]

yeah, if we just have the skimmer open 100%, the pump tries to primes and sucks so hard it empties the skimmer and it will cycle over and over and will never prime. I'll try lowering the prime rpm

 

[heckofagator]

just on a side note, so I can understand this overall environment, what's the reasoning for not having the spa drain open during pool mode.

I guess if we close the spa drain in pool mode, the overspill from the spa will increase (as there will be more water in there?)

 

[mknauss]

what's the reasoning for not having the spa drain open during pool mode.

You are just cycling the water in the spa and not using the overflow for skimming, pool sanitation, etc. Better to reduce the flow to the spa and have more out of the pool returns. Even better is to set up a Spillway function and only run the spa spillover a couple times per day for 20-30 minutes to chlorinate the spa water.

The Priming Speed is set in your Intellicenter. Also duration. If the pump primes easily, reduce how long the pump is at priming speed.

 

[Jimrahbe]

the pump tries to primes and sucks so hard it empties the skimmer and it will cycle over and over and will never prime.

Heck.

The main reason this happens is that the weir door is stuck up. It is almost impossible for the pump to suck more water out of a 2" pipe than can flow in through the mouth of the skimmer. The fact that it cycles means that the door is stuck up until the water in the pool forces it open. Check that your weir door is operating smoothly and not sticking up.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[heckofagator]

Heck.

The main reason this happens is that the weir door is stuck up. It is almost impossible for the pump to suck more water out of a 2" pipe than can flow in through the mouth of the skimmer. The fact that it cycles means that the door is stuck up until the water in the pool forces it open. Check that your weir door is operating smoothly and not sticking up.

Thanks,

Jim R.

The Weir was actually stuck open (it couldn't close) under yesterday when I fixed that. I guess I just need to start playing with it again with these new setting and see how it behaves.