Q. My skimmer stopped functioning. A leak-detection company found a leak in the spa. The service technician flushed the skimmer pipe using pressure, but the pipe was clear. The skimmer valve was working properly. Is there anything else I can do?
A. If the water level is not halfway up the skimmer opening, the skimmer and pool pump could run dry, causing a suction leak. A lack of water in the pipes along with the dry pump and skimmer could cause the PVC plumbing to heat up, and then collapse or warp or both.
Let’s assume your pressure flush indicates the suction line is clear. Double-check by removing the skimmer basket and dedicating all suction to the skimmer. With the skimmer lid removed and the pump basket in place, drop a penny in the skimmer. The water should move through your pipes at 2 to 3 feet a second, so it should take no more than a minute for the penny to travel through your pool pipes and end up trapped inside the pool-pump basket. If the penny doesn’t make it, the pressure flush didn’t clear the line; if the penny is there, the problem is elsewhere. If you see air bubbles in the pool-pump basket or coming out of the return lines of the pool when the pump is on, this could signal an air leak on the suction side of the plumbing or in a shaft seal of the pool pump.
The shaft seal is the ceramic ring between the pump and the motor. The pool water could be leaking in this area, appearing as moisture under the pump. The cost to repair the shaft seal should be less than $100.
“Never, under any circumstances, stick a garden hose into the skimmer line when the pump is running, to try and flush out the blockage,” warns Joe McClellan, owner of McClellan Pool Services Inc. in Clermont, Fla. The garden hose will get sucked in deep past the two 90-degree elbows, and it’s difficult to get the hose back out. This will cause a new problem with a great expense.
At this point, it is time to call a licensed pool professional to find the problem and unclog the line.
Paul Roth of Roll-A-Way Protective Pool Fence in Orlando is a member of the National Spa and Pool Institute Central Florida Chapter, an industry trade group. Write In the Swim, Orlando Sentinel, MP-240, P.O. Box 2833, Orlando, Fla. 32802. The Orlando Sentinel is a Tribune Co. newspaper.
