I have the winterizing rectangular expandable foam plug for the wide mouth skimmer and although it fits snug, water is seeping past. Any recommendations on how to seal it so I can keep the water in the pool. I need the water level high so the self draining cover is above the return port for water to drain. Thanks.
Leaking pool skimmer winterizing plug
- Thread starter goinflyn
- Start date
No ideal on how to improve the seal on the foam plug (I used one this year for the first time - I had to put at lot of pool lube on that thing).
However, you could put a Gizmo in the skimmer. That would plug the skimmer pipe. The plug would still leak, but once the skimmer fills it should not leak any further.
Unfortunately I can’t use a gizmo. My skimmer housing is 20” deep and too long for it. It has a pre filter mwah screen so that’s out. But thanks. I’m going to try the flex seal tape on the outside of the plug and see what happens. I’m not keen on using silicone that cures under water as I’m afraid it’s too good a seal and I can’t remove the plug in the spring.
The skimmer plug. Right at the top of the list for not having to work, just needs to sell. Most are found at the bottom of the pool or floating come spring. Fill your skimmer with foam as tight and as much as possible and out into the throat. What you can do now that you have a useless piece of plastic and foam is put a stainless steel threaded rod through the middle of it going long enough into the skimmer so you can slide a SS bar on it and follow up with a nut. Now it can not fall off and will let you put foam in the throat and not have to worry about it floating away into the pool.
I went with plan ‘B’. I used the gorilla flex tape along the edge of the plug outside overlapping the skimmer edge. Marked the water level and let’s see what happens. Tape is pretty strong, even under water. I’ll check it in a week or so and see if it holds. What do you think of adding a return fitting towards the bottom of the pool just for letting the self draining cover drain out. The issue is the water drops below the skimmer which is too low for the drain cover to drain into the return fitting.
We never use the wide mouth skimmer plug. We remove the pipe from below the skimmer and leave the skimmer drain open. We plug the lower pipe. This pic shows the pipes, which we remove at the union and then plug the lower pipes after we blow out the lines. Never had a problem with ice, freezing, cracking.
