Setting up Intex Pool filter- Can the water level be below the filter return?

Hello,

I just set up my first Intex 12'x30" metal frame pool a couple of days ago, but I have not set up the filter yet. As I have two small children, I did not fill the pool all the way, just about 2 inches above the lower filter hole. The filter return hole is about an inch and a half above the water level.

Here is what I'm wondering: Is it ok to run the filter with the return above the surface of the pool? I know that the instructions all say to have the water at least an inch above the return, but will anything bad happen if it pours out into the pool like a waterfall?

Thank you for any help you can give, I've searched online for the answer to this question, but with no luck.

The problem with insufficient water in most above ground pools, including all Intex pools, is that the water is an integral structural element of the pool. Too low and the pool can collapse inward, especially if the water is below the LOWER (drain) hole. Not only that, without chlorine in the water and no filtering your water quickly will become contaminated, and unsafe.

Now IF (and ONLY IF) you can find out from Intex that if the water level is below the return, but above the drain, that the pool is still structurally sound, the main problem from a "waterfall" into the pool will be a constantly rising pH level, and you'll have to add acid to the water regularly to bring it back down.

But 30" is very, very shallow and if it's over your kids' heads maybe they still are too small for it--and in any case should never be in it without an adult in it with them.

Hello, Carl,

Thank you so much for your advice! I will have to look at the options and make sure that the pH is not going to go haywire. I could raise the level of the pool, it is only waist deep to my three year old now. The boys are never ever around the pool without an adult supervising, we were just thinking it might be a little safer if there was less water in there. Thanks again!

I'm not sure there's really much difference in safety between waist deep and chest deep. Either case presents a drowning hazard, neither is above thier shoulders. Constant supervision is the risk mitigation in both. As long as the water's clear, I can't see a difference.

I think BigDave put his finger on it, exactly. Chest-high water in a fully filled pool that now is structurally sound has GOT to be safer than waist-deep water in a partially-filled pool where the water is a KEY structural component.