Overflow Drain?

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R

Rocketfish

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Bronze Supporter
Jun 6, 2016
102
Orange County, CA
We have been getting a lot of rain in the past couple of weeks which is really exciting for Southern California. I was wondering, how does my pool NOT overflow? Is there some sort of overflow drain somewhere? you can see the skimmer opening is pretty much submerged at the upper right. Is THAT where the drain is? I'm really curious. The water isn't going through the coping or deck right?

pool water.jpg
 
Do you have an autofill pot somewhere? There is a connection point at the top of most autofill pots for 1" PVC pipe connection that can be used as a drain. Keeps the pool from overfilling if the autofill were to fail. Mine is capped off because here in the desert there's little chance of rain overflowing my pool.
 
Also, you should drain the water down. You do not want water sitting at the height of the coping as the seal between the deck and coping isn't always water tight and you don't want water to infiltrate underneath the coping and cause damage.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
Do you have an autofill pot somewhere? There is a connection point at the top of most autofill pots for 1" PVC pipe connection that can be used as a drain. Keeps the pool from overfilling if the autofill were to fail. Mine is capped off because here in the desert there's little chance of rain overflowing my pool.
Click to expand...

I do NOT have an autofill pot that I know of anywhere. I usually throw in the hose to top off the water when it gets low.

JoyfulNoise said:
Also, you should drain the water down. You do not want water sitting at the height of the coping as the seal between the deck and coping isn't always water tight and you don't want water to infiltrate underneath the coping and cause damage.
Click to expand...
See? This is exactly why I come to this site. I would've never thought of draining the water down a bit. whoa. Now I need to learn how to do that with my existing equipment (this is my first winter in this house with this pool). I see valves everywhere, some without handles, however, and also something that looks like it drains to a sewer connection. I should be able to drain to waste somehow right? this would drain the pool right?

Just when I thought I was done with my noob questions haha!
 
Why don't you post a picture of the equipment pad. Since you have a cartridge filter, there usually isn't a multiport valve with those and, unless the previous owner built it into the plumbing, there usually isn't a waste option. Sometimes there's a spigot connection right after the pump that can allow you to drain off water. picture is worth a thousand words....
 
Rocket,

I looked at a previous pic of your equipment pad and did not see any way to drain your pool from there. Granted the picture was not all that good and I could have missed something.

The only reason I bring this up is that a very simple way to drain your pool is with a siphon hose.. Just like you used to use when you were stealing gas from your neighbor's car... :D

Just stick one end of a garden hose in your pool and the other end at a lower elevation... suck a little water trough the hose and Wa-La instant drain.

I know this because I put water into a pool at a rent house and then turned off the water and disconnected the hose from the hose bib.
I did not realize what I had done for a few hours and the water in the pool was almost below the skimmers.. :brickwall:

Thanks,

Jim R.
 

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Jim, that's fantastic. One of the pictures I wanted to show you guys was that of drain that is in a pool equipment "box" that the previous builder built. Basically, on the side of the house, there is a pipe that sticks up from the ground. it's maybe 3 or 4 inches in diameter. There is a pvc pipe that drains to this and has a valve - I'm CERTAIN it has to be related to the pool somehow. I'll post pictures. I'm going to siphon the water by using a small section of hose and shoving it down that drain at the lower elevation.

Man, simple ingenuity ALWAYS trumps complicated setups right? Thanks again for this. Thanks to ALL of you.
 
OK guys, here are some pictures.

Firstly, do you think i should still drain my pool a bit? I took this picture last night and it shows how the waterline is actually maybe an inch below the top of the tile. I checked this morning when it was calmer and this is the case all around the pool.


Secondly, here is that weird "drain" thing I found. This guy is located next to the pool but opposite the side where the pump and filter are. It's pretty corroded but I have confirmed that it drains here properly, because when I got my RO last summer, they used this for the waste water. See the red valve? I've actually never opened it so I don't know where it comes from. I'm ASSUMING it's to help drain the pool or vacuum to waste, but I guess you guys can confirm whether or not I have that capability below.


Here are some pictures of my pump and filter area. These were taken at night, but I think it tells the right story which you guys can hopefully clear up for me.

Thanks everyone!




 
Rocket,

My guess is that your pool used to have an old DE filter and that was where the waste drain was. But, who knows for sure???

You can't hurt anything by opening the valve and seeing what happens. My guess is nothing....

But if pool water starts to come out that would be great.

As long as the water is below the grout line between the pool tile and the coping, then you should be OK. But, if it is going to rain again soon, I'd still want to drain down to the middle of the skimmer.

Jim R.
 
I would drain it regardless. With a water level that high, your skimmer is not working as it should. Yes, it's still pulling water in, but with the level that high there is no surface skimming occurring.

Also, you don't want water infiltrating the space between the coping and the bond beam. It will only weaken the coping over time and become a moist and damp place for algae and mold to grow in.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I live in So Cal and am in the same situation. I do have an overflow port which drains into my backyard drainage system which has several drains that flow into the street. Thing is, that when the pool is at that level, the skimmers do not work any more since the weir doors are jammed closed at the top. I bought a submersible pump at home depot along with a 25' hose for around 70 bucks and have drained my pool back to normal levels twice now within two weeks. Works great, get one.
 
Just an update. Upon further inspection, when the pump was running, it appeared as though you were all correct in regards to the skimmer. I do NOT have a weir so that was not a problem, but the water level, although it appeared below the opening was actually ABOVE the skimmer opening on the inside where the basket is. Therefore, ZERO skimming was happening. The surface of my pool had some nasty black things floating everywhere!

The good thing is that I was able to shove my garden hose down that drain looking thing (shown above), afterwhich I stuck the other end in a return. after clearing out the bubbles in the hose, I placed the hose tip just under the surface and lo and behold, I drained just enough water that the skimmer started skimming again - SUCCESS.

Thank you once again TFP experts and contributors. I LOVE this site!
 

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