Skimmer accessory that may or not exist...

[Jake&Clan]

My kids leave toys in the pool quite often which we have no issue with. We swim nearly every day. However, I need my pump to run in order to circulate the water for my heat pump. Inevitably, a toy gets caught in the basket or a pool float hinders the flow of water enough that the pump starts to lose its prime family sucking air.

I need something that will allow water to flow into the basket but not allow anything to come into the basket to stop its ability to suck. I found something on Amazon but it was three and a half weeks out on delivery. The Dolphin pool vac does a great job with leaves, dirt, sand, etc.


Question 2. I'd really like my pool pump to suck water from the bottom of my pool. I kind of thought of a way to do it using the pool hoses of an old pool pump powered randomized pool vacuum I used to use. The pump obviously has its own filter basket but we would to be bypassing the skimmer in the basket. Pump is 3/4 horse and flows around 52 gallons per minute. Not sure a simple pool hose in the bottom of the pool attached to the skimmer would be large enough to prevent taxing the pump.

Draw cool water up, send it through the heat pump, and pipe it back in.

 

[dleonard1122]

I need something that will allow water to flow into the basket but not allow anything to come into the basket to stop its ability to suck.

Sounds like you're looking for a skimmer guard. There are some commercial and DIY options linked here.

Skimmer Guards - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Draw cool water up, send it through the heat pump, and pipe it back in.

What is your goal with this? Are you trying to heat your pool? You will lose a significant amount of your surface skimming if you change where the bulk of your water is being pulled from, and if you don't have 2 skimmers then you wont get any surface skimming at all. I'd recommend a solar cover if the pool isn't warm enough.

Solar Covers - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Jake&Clan]

I have a heat pump for the pool... I just want to occasionally churn the water for better, more even, heating.

 

[superdave5599]

Do you have a bottom drain?

We have one skimmer and one bottom drain.

I frequently have a random pool vacuum hooked up to the skimmer, with a hairnet over the basket. That vacuum is obviously sucking up pool water from the bottom (and all over so) so unless I've left it disconnected I don't notice any temperature gradients upon jumping in-it seems pretty even. Also haven't noticed any issues with the pump running or struggling or whatever. Sometimes I have the bottom drain valve open a crack. I haven't actually checked, but suspect there may be a small hole drilled in the valve to prevent the pump from accidentally running dry or something.

I just sometimes leave the skimmer cover hookup off if I want skimming action rather than vacuuming. Or vacuum during the day when the pump is running on it's normal timer schedule, and disconnect it for a little skimming in the evening. I have experimented with careful placement of the cover hookup to have just a tiny bit of the basket exposed which does give me both vacuuming and skimming.

 

[Jake&Clan]

Do you have a bottom drain?

We have one skimmer and one bottom drain.

I frequently have a random pool vacuum hooked up to the skimmer, with a hairnet over the basket. That vacuum is obviously sucking up pool water from the bottom (and all over so) so unless I've left it disconnected I don't notice any temperature gradients upon jumping in-it seems pretty even. Also haven't noticed any issues with the pump running or struggling or whatever. Sometimes I have the bottom drain valve open a crack. I haven't actually checked, but suspect there may be a small hole drilled in the valve to prevent the pump from accidentally running dry or something.

I just sometimes leave the skimmer cover hookup off if I want skimming action rather than vacuuming. Or vacuum during the day when the pump is running on it's normal timer schedule, and disconnect it for a little skimming in the evening. I have experimented with careful placement of the cover hookup to have just a tiny bit of the basket exposed which does give me both vacuuming and skimming.

It's an above ground pool so, no. What do you mean by "cover hookup" ? Is that the same thing as a skimmer plug?

I get it, now. You're using your bottom drain as the source of water. Unfortunately with this being above ground a bottom drain looks like a lot like my kid releasing my underwater scooters (Subnado) on cruise control and "chasing" them around the pool as a game. This "fun" then results in the torpedo-like subnado to ram into the bottom creating an undesired bottom drain and five other slits in the liner.

In other news I hooked about 10' of pool hose to my return outlet and tied off a gallon of water at the end of the hose. I played around with weight and found "near perfect" equilibrium in terms of dragging the gallon on the bottom and the hose "floating" just an inch or so off the bottom. The hose miandered all around the pool disbursing 100 degree water (I checked) with outdoor temps sitting at 61.1 degrees. This resulted in a very temperature balanced pool.