New Skimmer Line not staying primed

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jentjent

New Skimmer Line not staying primed

Postby jentjent » Mon 03 Jul, 2017 12:32

Hi,

The house we bought had a skimmer that was not working (one of 3 total, 2 in the pool, 1 in the attached spa). We knew we were going to remodel the backyard and put in a new pool deck so we put repairs on hold to fix the skimmer issue. In the mean time we had someone come and try to blow any blockage out from both sides of the clogged line and it didn't work. Fast forward 2 years and we ripped up the old pool deck and to my surprise saw only one line from the skimmer directly perpendicular away from the pool that went out about 2 feet then was capped. I called the pool builder and they said that is a "dummy" line and the other line goes through the pool shell. Since there was nothing we could do about a line in the pool shell, we dropped the water level below the skimmer and confirmed with a hose that water went through the skimmer to the formerly capped line, dug a trench and connected what was the "dummy" line to the pool equipment with new piping. We cut the old line a foot from the valve and connected the new one to the pipe to the valve.

When we turned it on, it didn't work initially but there was water movement when the motor was turned on or off. I shut off the other skimmer in the pool and the main drain so the motor was specifically working on pulling water from that skimmer only and it worked perfect. Then I turned back on all the other skimmers and drains and it all worked... until I turned the motor off and turned it on again the next day.

Net, the new skimmer works but only after I shut down everything else and have the motor pull directly from that to "get it started". Any ideas why this is happening? I'm baffled and bummed after putting in a new line that we still have a skimmer that doesn't work. :(


Denniswiseman
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My Pool: 10k inground fibreglass, Telescopic Cover, Hayward Powerline pump, Quality filter with glass media, 27kw output heat pump, K-2006C test kit
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Re: New Skimmer Line not staying primed

Postby Denniswiseman » Wed 05 Jul, 2017 11:07

You may have to balance the suction lines with valves so that you can control the water flow in each line
Water will take the line of least resistance
Generally the shortest run

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