No suction at skimmers

bernard smith · Postby **bernard smith** » Wed 23 Jun, 2010 03:36

Can you help, I am getting suction at the skimmers

SteveM1800 · Postby **SteveM1800** » Wed 23 Jun, 2010 13:57

Have you Backwashed the filter?

singly01 · Postby **singly01** » Thu 19 Apr, 2012 12:17

Hi - I am new to the forum so please bear with me.
I am having a similar problem with what appears to be LOW suction in the SKIMMERS. It is an in-ground pool (8mx4m) with a SAND filter, pump operates at 2850rpm. The problem highlighted itself only since I have uncovered it getting ready for the summer. Put some liquid FLOCO to freshen the appearance of the water. Left it overnight with no filtration running then vacuumed and went through the cleaning sequence including BACKWASH/RINSE/WASTE. The water is still a little milky. Filteration is twice a day for 4 hour periods. The pressure gauge on top of the main sand filter indicates it is staying at 0.5 in the WHITE scale (gauge reads WHITE/GREEN/YELLOW/RED so 0.5 could be low ?) Bled valve on top of sand filter to see if any air in the system but negative. Cleaned the basket attached to the pump. Tried BACKWASH again and seem to get a little bit of suction in CIRCULATION rather than in FILTER mode and then it goes weak again.

No loss of water and no air bubbles anywhere that I can see. Can any of you wizkids help please ?

BudgetPoolCare · Postby **BudgetPoolCare** » Sat 21 Apr, 2012 07:09

have you pulled the pump apart to check the impellor? also your sand might need changing.

Budget Pool Care
Sydney, Australia
www.BudgetPoolCare.com.au

Postby **czechmate** » Tue 08 May, 2012 11:16

Please state the PSI backpressure at filter and the water level in inches at the skimmer intake gate. Also how many skimmers are open.

Glennjean · Postby **Glennjean** » Sun 11 May, 2014 12:38

We have 2 skimmers at the far end of our pool and one of the skimmers has completly lost suction but the other skimmer is working fine. We have tried backwashing, removed the basket from the faulty skimmer and put a hosepipe right into the skimmer hole to try and flush out any blockage (if there is one), left the pump on overnight to see if it forces it to work but nothing is working. As far as we can see the skimmer on the actual pump is nice and clean and the pressure is reading fine when the pump is on. There is no air trapped either and we are getting little if no (air) noises when the pump is on. When we covered the hole on good skimmer so that it could work, we could hear the other skimmer trying to kick in and hissing noise coming from the pipes just to the right of the faulty skimmer. As soon as we removed the cup from the good skimmer, the hissing noise stopped but the faulty skimmer still wont work. It has been suggested we may have a small water leak which is activated each time we turn on our pump, but we are not noticing any drastic increase in our water bill. We are totally at a loss here, can anyone help please !

CGPoolman · Postby **CGPoolman** » Sun 11 May, 2014 18:18

Glenn,

Sounds like the skimmer pipe is clogged. Just sticking the hose down the skimmer pipe isn't enough pressure to blow out a clog. You want to use a Hydraulic Line Flusher, it looks like a rubber boot that screws on to the end of your hose. You can get one at your local home improvement store in the plumbing section. The boot inflates like a ball and forces water in one direction. If there is a clog in your skimmer line, that will blow it out.

-CG

Glennjean · Postby **Glennjean** » Mon 12 May, 2014 14:34

Thank you, I will certainly give this a try