water dripping out of inlet...

[PamD]

Hi All. Thanks for all the help in starting up and immediately closing our pool due to the season. lol. Everything's been great til now.

We got hit with a lot of rain, (no snow yet-YES), and water has started to drip out of the return inlet. I plan on shop vaccing the water off the top, but it brought up a question of plugs? I don't have a clue what to get. The inside of the inlet still has the flow direction thing on it. Water is drained 6" or a little more under the skimmer/inlet. Can I plug this? The outside of the inlet is not threaded. Do I have to take the inlet direction thing apart/off to get to a threaded part to use a threaded plug? Got a couple more days of mid 30's here, so I should be good. thanks.

 

[Casey]

The outlet gets plugged from the inside. So if you're covered, you'll have to partially remove it. It's dripping because rain water has collected on top of the cover which in turn displaces the pool water out of the return. It's normal. I wouldn't worry about it. When you take your cover off in spring, you'll find that youre water is noticeably lower than where you drained it initially.

 

[PamD]

Right. I get the displacement. So how do I partially take it off? I tried to unscrew it, but it wasn't budging when we winterized, so I didn't force anything... And are they threaded on the inside to add a threaded plug to?

 

[Casey]

They are not threaded. They are like rubber plugs with a wing nut on the end that you tighten into the outlet and it swells in the opening. The pool will still leak water. I've seen my brother and dad's pool both lose water using them.

If you're going to pull the cover off, you need to drain the water off the top so it doesn't dump in the pool.

 

[dsmith99]

My return port has 3 parts on the inside. The first that comes off is a cap that screws onto the socket and holds the eyball jet's position tight in the socket. After removing the cap the eyball jet will be loose and comes right out. The inner socket that the eyball fits into will then unscrew out of the housing. Mine almost always requires pliers or some extra grip to get it out, the only thing exposed is threads so it can be easily damaged. Other times the cap tightens up enough that the socket ends up breaking loose first and all three pieces come out as one piece. After the socket is removed a standard 1.5" threaded plug will screw right into the housing from the inside. Or you can as Casey suggested, get an expanding plug and insert that into the jet.

That said, I would rather any excess water drain out of the return. The return jet sits lower than the skimmer so having water leak out of there is better than having the pool fill up far enough that water reaches the skimmer. If the pool fills up and water drains into the skimmer, the hole in the bottom of the skimmer may become blocked with ice chunks or debris and refreeze. This can allow enough water to collect in the skimmer that it can freeze, expand and break the skimmer box.

 

[PamD]

My return port has 3 parts on the inside. The first that comes off is a cap that screws onto the socket and holds the eyball jet's position tight in the socket. After removing the cap the eyball jet will be loose and comes right out. The inner socket that the eyball fits into will then unscrew out of the housing. Mine almost always requires pliers or some extra grip to get it out, the only thing exposed is threads so it can be easily damaged. Other times the cap tightens up enough that the socket ends up breaking loose first and all three pieces come out as one piece. After the socket is removed a standard 1.5" threaded plug will screw right into the housing from the inside. Or you can as Casey suggested, get an expanding plug and insert that into the jet.

That said, I would rather any excess water drain out of the return. The return jet sits lower than the skimmer so having water leak out of there is better than having the pool fill up far enough that water reaches the skimmer. If the pool fills up and water drains into the skimmer, the hole in the bottom of the skimmer may become blocked with ice chunks or debris and refreeze. This can allow enough water to collect in the skimmer that it can freeze, expand and break the skimmer box.

Thanks. I think rather than risk stripping something, (as I had tried to loosen the outer ring when I was closing), I will just let it drip out, and not risk damaging the skimmer.