Overflow drain in skimmer - where does the water typically get drained to?

[bertschb]

I'm a new pool owner and found what I think is the overflow drain at the rear of my skimmer. I bent down and took a picture inside the drain hole and saw an even smaller roughly 1/4" hole inside as shown in the pics below. Is this typical and if this is an overflow drain, where are they typically plumbed? Where does the water go?

 

[ajw22]

Typical??? Nothing is typical in pool building and plumbing.

You find many plumber who like to show their creativity in customer builds.

Is there a problem with your overflow?

 

[mknauss]

I can't imagine why there would be an overflow drain on a pool in Phoenix. Truly unnecessary.

I would plug it.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

My guess is that drain goes no where (it doesn’t look opened up anyway). Not sure what the small hole is but it wouldn’t be able to drain water fast enough for an overflow so my thought is that it’s just sealed off where the skimmer is buried.

 

[bertschb]

Is there a problem with your overflow?

No problem really. Just trying to familiarize myself with the pool. I'm trying to adjust the autofill and IMO, this "drain" is about an inch too low. I'd like to have the water level at the top of this drain hole. But, if it really is a drain, my autofill would run continuously. The pool is only six months old and it was built by Shasta Pools which is a very large PB in my area. Not sure why a large PB would install this if it doesn't do anything.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Most auto fills come with overflow ports. It’s up to the builder to plumb it or cap it. You’re is likely capped.

 

[bertschb]

I decided to test this hole to see if in fact it is an overflow drain. I went to Home Depot and found what I was looking for in the first bin I looked at. I set an all time record for shortest visit to the plumbing aisle! My wife was waiting in the car and expected the typical 20-30 minute wait. Nope!

Anyway, I added water to this elbow and it drained out so this hole is an overflow drain. I have no clue where it drains to (hopefully not just straight down on the outside of the pool wall) but since it's lower in the skimmer than I'd like, this elbow will allow me to raise the water level about 2". And, if the auto-fill fails and we're gone, this would help prevent water from flowing over the coping assuming I have the fill water flow set low which is what I'll do when we leave for extended periods of time.

I'll probably just plug it up eventually as @mknauss suggested but for now this will work.

 

[Turbo1Ton]

Looks like, best I can tell anyway, is that that port is connected to the lower return/venturi port. That is marked as the Integrated Safety Vacuum Release System, in the below image, taken from the A&A quickskim installation instructions.



You can see in the picture from my pool build, that the 'plate' on the back appears to allow it to flow down to the return port.




--Jeff

 

[bertschb]

Thanks for sharing this Jeff! My pool does have the Quickskim system. I spent quite a bit of time looking for the Quickskim installation instructions that have the diagram you shared above hoping to read more about it but I couldn't find it. If the hole in the back of the skimmer is a safety vacuum release system, I assume I wouldn't want to plug it. But, I wonder if it matters if the water level was near the top of this hole?

 

[Turbo1Ton]

You can download the instructions from here... https://aamfg.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003722371-QuikSkim-Installation-Instructions

Although from everything I was able to see, there is absolutely no mention of it in the installation instructions at all.

My water level doesn't ever get near that opening. It sits about 1/2" below there. And that is at the darn full water mark. We had rain last night. Not sure why your level is so much higher. I would think the elevation between that opening and the mouth of the skimmer would be the same between yours and my skimmers.

And I agree, probably don't want to plug it. Although I'm not sure how one would go about getting sucked into the skimmer basket where an SVRS would be needed.

--Jeff

 

[bertschb]

Although I'm not sure how one would go about getting sucked into the skimmer basket where an SVRS would be needed.

Hah! That was my thought as well. Thanks for the link BTW.

 

[Chuckiechan]

I'm a new pool owner and found what I think is the overflow drain at the rear of my skimmer. I bent down and took a picture inside the drain hole and saw an even smaller roughly 1/4" hole inside as shown in the pics below. Is this typical and if this is an overflow drain, where are they typically plumbed? Where does the water go?

View attachment 397825

View attachment 397826

Mine is just like to top photo and goes into my landscape drainage pipe.