main drain suction

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manio

main drain suction

Postby manio » Sat 02 Aug, 2008 20:49

how do I create suction from the main drain when i only have one plumbing line going into my pump from the skimmer. I have ensured that the main drain line is not clogged, so please if anyone knows how or if there is a device that isolates the suction from the main drain please let me know.


Guest

Re: main drain suction

Postby Guest » Sat 02 Aug, 2008 22:11

Do you have 2 holes at the bottom of your skimmer? Pools are often plumbed with the main drain tying into the skimmer.

If there isn't 2 holes there may be a plastic diverter valve at the bottom of the skimmer. Turning the valve adjusts flow.

manio wrote:how do I create suction from the main drain when i only have one plumbing line going into my pump from the skimmer. I have ensured that the main drain line is not clogged, so please if anyone knows how or if there is a device that isolates the suction from the main drain please let me know.
manio

main drain suction

Postby manio » Mon 04 Aug, 2008 22:11

I do have two holes in the bottom of my skimmer. One is the suction to the pump. The other one (closest to the pool) is connected to the main drain. My drain is not clogged with anything. I put the garden hose down the hole and things were getting stirred up at the bottom. I even put fish tape down the hole and it came out the other side. I have even closed my skimmer weir to force the pump to draw water from the main drain but all that does is create a cycle of water getting sucked away from inside the skimmer, skimmer filling up with water courtesy of main drain line, and air instead of water being returned to the pool because of a lack of isolated water suction from main drain. Any suggestions or solutions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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mr_clean
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Postby mr_clean » Tue 05 Aug, 2008 13:53

if you have a two hole skimmer all you need to do is buy a skimmer float that sits on top of both holes & allows you to share suction for bottom skimmer/main drain.
muss08
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Postby muss08 » Tue 05 Aug, 2008 14:48

Although it is very difficult to tell you are getting suction from your main drain just not very much. The pull from the one line is enough to create some suction from the main drain.
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manio

main drain suction

Postby manio » Tue 05 Aug, 2008 15:07

Thanks for the replies. I did see that there is very little suction as I dove to the bottom and put small leaves in front of the hole and sure enough they were suctioned up. I just assumed that there would be enough suction to suck up the fine debris sitting in the main drain. I had to brush that debris with my fingers right in front of the opening to get them sucked away.

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