The Dragonfly Skimmer

[geekgranny]

Good question GG.

More than 50% of the time I use a hayward large capacity leaf canister-on the end of the first hose-I use the one with the plastic grate not the bag because I want the really small debris completely out of the pool, what slips through this usually gets hung up in my epumps filter basket - which is absolutely enormous- MUCH larger than my whisperflows basket.
I find the actual size of the pump annoying, and not as well packaged as Pentair's offering- but the basket is waay nicer.

I have the Hayward Large leaf canister too. It is so much more hassle than the Pool Skim, to me. I purchased it last fall when I bought the Tracker 4X. I think I'm going to sell the Tracker as I can't see using it now that I've got bags for Polaris that actually catch our micro stuff; the stuff that goes right through the Polaris silt/sand bag, and the Polaris liner socks for the Polaris bags. BUT ...... I surely wish I knew about the Leaf Canister all these years when I've had to to hand vacuum. I still occasionally have to do hand vacuum when too many leaves are coming down and I can't be here to micro manage changing out the Polaris bag or emptying the skimmer.

I wonder why so many pump manufacturers don't offer HUGE pump basket. It certainly would come in handy at times. And some of the pump baskets are even smaller than the "normal" size.


Note: I had pentair whisperflow 1HP prior to this pump and I loved it, so the above comment is in no way a disparagement of Pentairs pump, but a realistic comparison of this particular feature along with its downside.
I still have it as a standby replacement now.

I havent had the dragonfly in full leaf season so I may find I need a Poolskim, or 2 before clogging - but thats later....

Of course the polaris LCS I have has a much nicer integrated basket, but with limited capacity for the bottom cleaner, and the skimmer isnt nearly as good........

I only need to backwash a few times a year, with a de 60 so my dust influx MUST be substantially less than yours (ouch! brutal) although Ill give you run for the money on helicopters!

I'm having a really, really hard time getting all the cellulose and clay dust backwashed out of the Quad 80. It sticks to the four cartridges like cement. Last night I was going to put the backwash water back in the pool using a backwash Slime Bag but didn't have the right stuff to attach the waste pipe to the heavy vac hose I had planned on using. So I had to send it all down the hill. Get this, I tried various flows for the backwash from 20 gpm all the way to 100 gpm. I emptied about 8" of water from my pool. I could only get the psi down by 4. Last time, about a week ago, I opened the filter and rinsed the cartridges off with a hose. It took a lot of time, lot of water AND I didn't use the little brass attachment for hose that people are recommending for cleaning cartridges. AND it was a really wet job. (I have the brass fitting, but I couldn't find it. )

I asked my "Favorite Most Truste" pool guy if he installs many Quad filters here. He doesn't. Reason being they are too much hassle with our conditions out here. In fact he had just replaced a new Quad with a different DE filter for a customer a few days before.

I, now, know what he was referring too.

Thankfully we don't have the helicopters here. I used to love them when I was a kid growing up in KY. They float for a while don't they? I'm another who is entertained easily, especially if it is outdoors.

It's soon to be time for the June Bugs. They fill the skimmer really, really, really fast, and stink up the skimmer debris wast container. I didn't have either of my Pool Skims hooked up last spring so I guess I'm going to find out pretty soon how hard it is to get them out of PS bag.

Careful on the "too well" you may jinx it!

Uncle Dave

 

[Davegvg]

GG - agreed on the hayward canisters pain factor compared to a poolskim-
I've actually started using the regular Hayward canister with the plastic basket.
Its a tiny bit less of a pain, but still......

Question re your dust/silt- how log does it usually float before sinking? I find the poolskims get the leaves and small debris, and does a good job of sinking whatever dust/pollen like debris is floating- moving the silt/dust problem to the bottom cleaner. The dragonfly get the floaters up front before they sink- taking it right to your canister/pump pot/filter-

Jandy actually got the basket part and a few other things right-

So the quad DE holds that stuff to well huh? sounds like another pain (you really have a handfull with this pool)
What is the filter of choice for where you are?
I cant imagine a sand filter, or a cartridge filter will stop the silt that your de filter has a hard time with.

Good luck with the June bugs!

Uncle Dave

 

[geekgranny]

GG - agreed on the hayward canisters pain factor compared to a poolskim-
I've actually started using the regular Hayward canister with the plastic basket.
Its a tiny bit less of a pain, but still......

Question re your dust/silt- how log does it usually float before sinking?

The dust floats well enough that a considerable amount gets into the pool skim and is caught if there is enough plant debris to catch it. I have to empty the skimmer sock at least twice a day or it gets really clogged with the "dust" and even more so if there is only a small amount of plant debris. Polaris, using the EZ bags catches some and most of the silt which really weighs down the bag so I put a small piece of Styrofoam in the bag to keep it a little more buoyant. But a HUGE amount (most) still makes it to the filter. I'm sure a lot of the "dust" goes right through the Pool Skim, skimmer sock, and EZ bag. I was making my own Polaris bags, using plant frost cloth, which is like allergy fabric for pillow cases but it was catching too much and clogging up too fast. I run the pump 23/7

I find the poolskims get the leaves and small debris, and does a good job of sinking whatever dust/pollen like debris is floating- moving the silt/dust problem to the bottom cleaner. The dragonfly get the floaters up front before they sink- taking it right to your canister/pump pot/filter-

Jandy actually got the basket part and a few other things right-

So the quad DE holds that stuff to well huh? sounds like another pain (you really have a handfull with this pool) For Sure
What is the filter of choice for where you are?

My "Favorite Most Trusted" pool guy, who has been in service for over 20 yrs and owns the store, and services only out this way, with a few exceptions, told me that all of his customers have DE filters. I didn't ask him about cellulose.

I cant imagine a sand filter, or a cartridge filter will stop the silt that your de filter has a hard time with.

A small amount of stuff still makes it through the DE or cellulose as evidenced by observing water in front of light at night. Not much to do about it though. I have a large patch of yard right at the shallow end of pool that gets beaten down by the dogs. I had a hard time growing grass there because of the shade from the big tree I just had cut down so that added insult to injury. I'm hoping to start sodding it with Bermuda in next week or so. I can't afford to have the yard crew do it so I'm going to do a little at a time. The soil is so compacted I'll have to loosen it a bit, add some topsoil and then lay the sod. Another factor with the dust is that the water coming off the lands, just a few feet higher than us goes right into that area carrying all the silt and dust from other areas plus what comes off our drive. I have sand bags to keep the water from going in the pool and every year have the crew dig a trench on outside of sand bags. When we get a "toad choker", several inches in a few hours the water runs the whole width of area, about 20 ft. I'm wanting to put in dry creek trench with fero concrete and river rock but finding the time to do it is hard. This has been going on for years and getting worse every year for the past 10 years as HUGE houses are going in up the road. With drought past several summers that has worsened it too. The water and our being right on top of major run off to lake, for the whole hill, it is more sever here, at my place, than most other homes on our hill.

Good luck with the June bugs! Thanks, much. Every year it is different; some years better than others.

Uncle Dave

 

[Davegvg]

Re: The Dragonfly Skimmer- living up to hype in most areas.

So whats prefereable a super clean bottom or super clean top? Tests would seem to imply......

In my environment when I run tests back to back between a clean bottom and top- the dragonflys top cleaning actually does show an improvement in terms of the waters ability to hold free chlorine.

this would roughly back the companies statements that the top is more important to keep clean than the bottom.

In my testing the dragonfly held ay minimum a 1.0+ improvement in available free chlorine when comparing the water running the in wall skimmer or running a bottom cleaner.

In my high debris influx environment the dragonfly delivers on its promise of chlorine consumption reduction compared to the other cleaning methods I have tested.

Aggravatingly I still have to toss in the bottom cleaner about once a week so I dont have zero maintenance, but Im getting closer.

Uncle Dave