Intex skimmer basket on Coleman/Bestway pool

[rj2222]

I have an almost brand new Intex hang over the wall skimmer basket, but had to replace the pool this year with a Coleman (made by Bestway) 18x48 which has two openings in the pool wall to suck water into the pump through.

The hoses for those two openings are skinnier than the Intex hoses though. Is there an easy way to convert the one end to the smaller size? Do you think with the suction cut in half due to the two holes, would the skimmer basket even work? The intex only had one hose sucking water into the pump but the pumps are the same GPH coincidentally.

Thanks for the help. Never really tried to mod anything for a pool before.

 

[phroggie]

Been there. Done that.

If your Bestway is anything like my Bestway and if you have the same skimmer basket I have it's quite simple. Sorta.

I'm guessing your new pool came with two fitting that go in the pool. One side is covered with a kind of cage that's supposed to keep a smaller body from being caught by suction underwater. My instructions give it the part number P6680ASS16. If you look on its side there's a little screw. Remove it and then you can unscrew the cage part. Guess what? The blue fitting that screwed on to whatever you had on the side of the previous pool will screw on to where the cage was. Mischief managed . Almost.

I'm guessing that between the time my previous pool was made and now the "temporary AGP" industry had a safety epiphany and went from having one 1-1/2" opening/valve/hose inlet to the pump to requiring two inlets that tee. That way if a small body covers one inlet, the other inlet will prevent enough suction from trapping the body underwater or causing other suction injuries. For the purposes of using the Intex skimmer, this pretty much reduces the suction available for the skimmer. Any "tampering" with any of this is creating a safety hazard.

That said, given your circumstances you may be able to tolerate a somewhat hazardous situation. I do. I use one outlet for the skimmer connected to the Bestway sand filter using an adapter to 1-1/2" valve and hose and the other outlet is connected to the tiny Intex pump I bought last year to get me through the season when the original pump died. That pump is used to send water through the "heater".

If anyone needs pictures, let me know.

And remember: you will be creating a safety hazard.

 

[rj2222]

I have the two and the things have the little screw in them. If you have a picture would love to see it. Does it still work pretty well with half the suction in theory?

 

[phroggie]

The blue piece in the pool is from the Intex skimmer and it screwed right on the gray piece on the left. To get adequate suction I first blocked the second inlet off. (And thus created a safety hazard were I to have small children in the pool.) As I have it set up now, it's enough suction as evidenced that it pulls the skimmer basket down enough that it water "spills" in when it's on. It also is enough to use the vacuum attachment that came with the Intex pool until the sand filter needs to be back washed. The Bestway pump doesn't have as much suction since because of the sand filter versus the Intex membrane filter. (On a closer look, the gray piece on the left is actually from the tiny Intex pump I bought last year when the pump that came with the pool died but the principal is the same.)

 

[merc123]

Check my post. I did exactly what you’re doing

18x48 Coleman Vista 2 Build - Doing (most) everything wrong

This is my first time doing an AGP and it seems I've done alot wrong, but time will tell for sure! :) 1st thing that we did wrong was we built up instead of down. We built up ALOT. I brought in fill dirt and topsoil (another no-no) and we put around 1.5 tandem loads of dirt into the area. I...

www.troublefreepool.com

I did hard pipe mine and I suggest doing that also. You can use GAMO 1.5 adapters also. I get adequate suction with a 3k GPM Intex pump which is really oversized (is that a thing) for this pool size. I’ve been really happy with it.

Adapters: https://amzn.to/3tZiBBd