Anyone heard of, or had experience with flow-reversal?

[DennisP]

Mark, thanks for the reply. And I really do appreciate the breakdown of the thought process, since, as you can tell, I do pretty much the same exact thing.

And I am going off the 15ft pool we had prior where the pump was anemic and undersized and I know for fact that there was not full circulation within even 4 hours. I am equating that with a 27ft pool and the pump I have on low basically having the same effect. I found that pool very easy to maintain, but it also was a fraction of the water the bigger pool will have, thus my concern.

You did mention exactly what I was thinking, adding in the extra returns closer to the bottom. Having the extra returns 1/3 of the way around the pool from the original and having one pointed straight out and angled to the side, and the last one pointed upward and angled to the side should cause enough turbulence and flow to provide for proper mixing in all situations, regardless of pump speed.

Now, what are the thoughts on multiple skimmers? I have no trees directly above and don't anticipate a ton of leaves, just a few from the other side of the yard that has a big oak above the neighbors yard, as well as possibly from the burning bushes that are about 5 ft away from the pool. I expect many more leaves on the ground than what would be in the pool.

[mas985]

Don't go by a pool with an Intex pump. As I mentioned before they are rather pathetic. The Dynamo would have solved all those issues. But exactly how did you know for a fact that you weren't getting full circulation? Did you take multiple FC readings around the perimeter of the pool and did you see a large variation? That would be surprising to me.

As for multiple skimmers. Having two skimmers splits the flow so skimming action is reduced in each skimmer by 50%. Combined with low speed, it can be almost non-existent. I would only recommend a second skimmer for a very large pool or one with a potential dead spot (e.g. L shaped). AG pools don't tend to have dead spots. Also, if you have prevailing winds for the most part in a single direction, all debris will tend to flow toward one end of the pool and that is where the skimmer should be located. In this case, a second skimmer won't do you much good and you are better off with a single skimmer.

[DennisP]

That was exactly how I found out the mix sucked, by test readings and putting a dye in the pool... I could put it in on the far end and it would slowly sink and dissipate, but a half day later you had a blue blob directly under where you dumped it in. And that was without a filter in the bigger pump, so it was really sad...

Oh, I gotcha in regards to the skimming flow, in these discussions I always "assume" there is valving in place (I never do anything "half-way" and everything will be able to be turned on or shut off), so even with multiple skimmers, each skimmer would have a valve on it. The only item I considered not going that far is with dual main drains, and that is having them tee'd together and a single 2" run from the tee to a valve...

Ok, well the drains will be here tomorrow and I will have to decide if those are going in or not... I do believe I will put in the extra returns though...