Water splashing out of Skimmer

Hey All,

First, I want to thank eveyone for the suggestions and help on my other threads. I finally have the pool up and running. I'll post pic's in the other threads soon.

Anyway, When the kid do what kids do (splash, make waves, splash...) the water splashes out the back/top of the skimmer. I get quite a bit out btw the skimmer top/cover and the housing a the back. Is there a gasket or something I can use? I temp. used some duct tape to cover the 'seam', but obviously, thats not a long term solution (and it doesn't work all that great anyway).

Maybe its a common problem. But since I don't have any landscaping in yet, I get a lot of mud/wet ground around the pump area.

Thanks !!!

I assume you have an above ground pool? If so, the water level should only come up to about halfway up the skimmer opening. Check your water level. If it's too high, it will splash out when bathers displace even more water and splash, etc...

The water level is less than half way up when nobody is in the pool. What happens is the skimmer is round. So the wave hits the back and spashes up, which has the 'seam' where the top goes on the skimmer, so it splashes out and drips down the outer housing and/or down the hose.

Do you have a Weir door installed in the skimmer? ie: a plastic gate that has a foam back that snaps in the skimmer at 2 points on its bottom edge.

Hi, the flapper is just to keep the bugs in the skimmer. It does not do a thing to keep the waves out. Be careful with the water level also, much below the halfway point and you run the risk of creating a wirlpool effect that will draw a lot of air into your system.

Another use for duck tape to add to my list.:) The only things I have seen used are a rubber plug inserted into the center opening of the lid and a rock or two on the lid to hold it down tighter.

Aside from that, work on the landscaping and enjoy how much fun the kids are having.

Dennis

My skimmer cover locks in place and still water seeps from the sides and comes out of the center hole when kids are havn fun. I learned to live with it, but one thing I did was put plastic on the ground below the skimmer and then put 2 18"x18" patio blocks to protect the area directly below from the water washing away by the bottom rail.

Anthony

Had the same issues to prevent soil wash away I put some pavers under my skimmer. I figure the water loss is not a big issue if the kids (myself included) are having fun.
Steve

The amount of water you lose is minimal in teh grand scheme of things, however, I have managed to hold thousdands of "bonus gallons" of water in my pool until I could pump it to the neighbour's pool (long story all about water guy doing some serious overfilling) by using a shopping bac stretched over the top, then just screwing the lid back on - works quite well.

Hey, thanks for the replies !!!!

I'm not worried about the water loss, I just don't want anything washing away the dirt from around the bottom rail area.

I like the plastic/patio block idea. Sounds like I'll start my landscaping, working my way around the pool from there :)

Thanks !!!