Thru-the-wall skimmer vs. Intex over-the-wall skimmer; is there a big difference?

[Colymbus]

Hello all. I have the Intex Deluxe over the wall skimmer for our pool. We are into our second season with this and frankly, I'm not sure if I'm loving it. We upgraded to an Intex 3000gph sand filter this year and with the Intex skimmer the filter is acting 'water starved’ OK, no prob. Just ordered some adapters and a hose 'T' joint to open up the second intake Port. But then I got thinking, should I just be converting to a thru the wall skimmer? Will it actually work better? I'm kinda MEH about the Intex one. As a side note, I also just purchased the Intex auto-vacuum and plan to do some mods that I've seen on here so the vacuum can share the outflow jet. Anyway, long story long, if I'm already going to be doing some mods, I'm asking if the thru the wall is worth the time, effort, & money.

 

[jeffchap]

Yes, the Hayward Dyna-Skim is a very worthy upgrade. It will do a better job of keeping your water clean, and it won't get knocked loose by kids playing in the pool like the Intex does. Plus it comes with an adapter plate to hook up a real pool vac and a better return eyeball to circulate your pool. The only drawback is that the eyeball doesn't mate to the Intex hoses directly. I was able to get it to work by stacking a second rubber washer inside the collar.

You also can't screw the Intex robot on to the Hayward eyeball, so I fashioned this to connect my robot:

You can read more about it starting with post #21 in this thread:
New pump arrived today

 

[Colymbus]

Ha! Yours is the vacuum split setup I was planning to use I have it open on another tab Thank you for the response.