Poor Skimmer Suction and Good Main drain suction

[teachone]

Hello,

I was wondering what would be the cause of the low skimmer suction i am having. I drained my pool over the past winter and was able to clean out a lot of junk in the main drain. Now I get good suction from the main drain and low suction from the skimmer. I do not have any valves to switch between the two, water pulls from both. Ive cleaned the baskets and checked the pump propellar, so Im sort of stumped at the moment. Thanks for any advice and help.

[PoolDoc]

It's quite difficult to trouble shoot piping problems over the internet. It could be anything -- something that got into the skimmer, like a plastic toy, or a wad of leaves, or even solidified chemicals like cyanuric acid or borax. It could be a collapsed (or collapsing) pipe, or a failed valve.

If you want us to help you'll need to post pictures on Picasa, Photobucket or something of the kind (no porn hosts, please!). But, it's still hard to solve this sort of problem over the internet.

[teachone]

Thanks so much. I will try and get some pics up as soon as possible. Ive also thought of snaking it to see if that will help. Will definitely let you know the outcome. Thanks again.

[Watermom]

This may or may not help, but have you cleaned your filter? When I go too long between backwashes on my sand filter, my suction side vac doesn't have much pull to it. Probably not gonna help your situation but thought I'd just throw it out there.