skimmer closing

[smooth2222]

I plugged the skimmer with a rubber plug, now should i pour antifreeze and fill the skimmer up? or just throw a emplty plastic bottle inside? cap on or off?

 

[X-PertPool]

Take the unopened bottle of antifreeze and look at the bottle you will see that there is a small air pocket at the top. Take off the lid and fill that void with rocks until antifreeze comes to the brim, then recap the bottle. Now your antifreeze jug will no longer be buoyant and can take the squeeze of the ice in the winter away from your skimmer.

 

[UnderWaterVanya]

Take the unopened bottle of antifreeze and look at the bottle you will see that there is a small air pocket at the top. Take off the lid and fill that void with rocks until antifreeze comes to the brim, then recap the bottle. Now your antifreeze jug will no longer be buoyant and can take the squeeze of the ice in the winter away from your skimmer.

This seems intuitively wrong. Most liquids are incompressible and as such a partially submerged bottle filled with liquid is not going to "give" so ice expanding will push equally against the side of the skimmer with or without a liquid filled bottle. The antifreeze may have some impact but it would seem more appropriate to have a partially empty bottle so the air can be compressed - best if the cap is loose enough that when the bottle is squeezed air can slowly leak out.

But it could work - I'm just saying it does not make sense to my brain so far.


- Sent using Tapatalk

 

[X-PertPool]

The bottle even full to the brim is still rather squishy, more squishy then your average gizzmo (also don't forget the bottle takes up about 90% of the room in your average skimmer). You could leave some air at the top but the important thing is to get the bottle to sink and having air makes it hard to sink and then the bottom of the skimmer is left unprotected when the bottle starts to float. Even if you take the cap off the jug and fill the remaining portion with water from the pool the weigh in the jug itself when removed from the pool will cause the jug to bend and flex and you'll be left with a gap of air at the top of the jug anyways (the only easy way to get the jug totally without air is to cap it underwater) the same thing happens if you just filled it with rocks to the brim; as soon as you pick it up the weight pushes the bottom out a bit and a gap of air forms at the top when you go to put the lid on. Your science is sound but those real life variables that I don't usually mention leave a little bit of air in the jug. Regardless it's not a bad idea to leave some air in the jug on purpose; just test it in the pool water to make sure it sinks before putting it in skimmer.

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

If not using gizmos or blow through extensions for the skimmers, but rather, are using a large jug, it should have as much or more "give" than the water expansion when it turns to ice. This "give" will absorb any pressure exerted by the expansion and prevent it from cracking the skimmer body.

There are several ways to fill the jug but it should float some above the surface, not sink. The expansion is greatest near the surface of the water level. Many will 1/2 fill the jug with water but that, to me, makes no sense. That water will freeze too. Some use antifreeze. but if the jug cracks, there goes the antifreeze. I prefer using small rocks. If the jug cracks, the rocks normally won't get through the crack. I also turn the jug upside down with the cap on tightly. This traps the air inside.

Scott

 

[songebob]

The bottle will feel squishy because you are not exerting equal pressure on all sides when you squeeze it with your hands. The same cannot be said when it is frozen in the skimmer. The freezing water will exert pressure on it equally and it will not be compressible if it is filled with antifreeze. Best to use a gizmo or empty bottle weighted down with rocks.