Main drain troubleshooting

[centralphoenix]

Hi all,

Not long ago I decided to take care of my own pool and discovered and issue with my main drain.

Specifically, it doesn’t seem to be working. I put a leaf on it and it didn’t stick. I sprinkled some DE and it just sat on the MD cover.

I have a strong suspicion that when I had an addition built 2 years ago and they were moving my pool equipment, they capped my main drain pipe,l. Unfortunately, back then i didn’t know much about pools and pool plumbing…

Before I dig up my pavers and get to it, I was wondering if there is any way to troubleshoot it from the skimmer (to see if it’s even connected to the skimmer?)

See the image for the plumbing after it was moved. You can see two pipes are capped one 1.5” and one 3/4”. (i took a picture in case something wasn’t working, but pretty sure it’s out of warranty now…)

 

[Jimrahbe]

CP,

Why are you going to all this trouble. Main Drains are not really needed at all. Yours has not worked in two years so what is it that you think will happen if you get the main drain working?

I have three pools. One has a main drain and the other two do not. They all work the same, it is impossible to tell the one that has a working main drain from the other two.

What is the actual problem you are trying to solve?

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[centralphoenix]

@Jimrahbe Thanks for the quick answer. Couple reasons.

1. Main reason - I get a lot of dust/sand blown in by wind that settles on the bottom of the pool. After I switched from a suction vac to a pool robot it's just really annoying having to clean the robot's filter cartridges so frequently. It was much easier when it went straight into the filter.
2. I just switched my old pump to a new VS pump and want to take advantage of the low RPMs/wattage, so can't really go back to the old vac
3. I am hoping to get more flow on the suction side so that I can run the pump on the low RPMs (i only have 1 skimmer)
4. Maybe incorrect thinking - but i feel like the water close to the bottom isn't getting filtered when the pool is not being used

 

[Jimrahbe]

CP,

If you put your hand over an operating main drain you will not feel any suction. The only thing that will get sucked into the main drain is something very light that is within a 6" of the main drain if you are lucky.

You can still use a suction cleaner if you want, just ramp up the speed of your VS pump for a couple of hours a day to let the cleaner do its thing.

It is your pool and you should do whatever you want. The whole point of my post was to make sure you understood that, in my opinion, I doubt you will see much difference.

If you get the main drain running, then update this thread with your findings.. I've been wrong about 100 times, today alone...

Thanks,

Jim R.