2nd broken skimmer basket in 2 weeks

[aylad]

If it's the bottom of the basket that keeps detaching, it sounds to me like there's not enough open space for the water to be drawn through the basket, so the pump is actually sucking the bottom off the basket. If the rock takes up a lot of surface area, then I'd try for a smaller rock. Also, make sure you're cleaning the skimmer sock regularly--they catch an awful lot of stuff, and it won't take long for it to clog up so that water can't get through it.

[waldreps]

I had something similar happen to me last fall. We had a lot of leaves drop in just a few days, and I wasn't as diligent as I should have been at checking the skimmer basket. It had filled with leaves and been sucked down to the bottom of the skimmer. In doing that, it ripped the part of the flange off the basket and punctured the bottom with a couple of fittings that are in the bottom of the skimmer. Could the skimmer sock be getting clogged and causing the pump to pull really hard on the basket?