Hello Everyone – I just opened my inground pool this week and have been contending with a leak issue which I believe is coming from one of the skimmer faceplates. I noticed that one of the faceplates has some damage to the plastic exposing the gasket underneath and it seems that the water level settles around this point. I attached some pictures – I haven’t tested with dye yet as the water is right below the point of damage, and I’m waiting to see if the water level falls further.

My plan is to replace this faceplate and gasket and was hoping to get some detailed information on best practices. My thoughts would be:
• Bring water level below skimmer
• Unscrew all 16 screws
• Remove faceplate & gasket
• Replace both gasket and faceplate and tighten screws.
Some of the questions, or problems I’m anticipating are the screws not being tight since I’m going into existing holes. Is there anything I can use ensure a tight seal ? Also, should I put any silicone or anything on the gasket ? Any advice would be appreciated.

The skimmers are Hayward, but it’s not clear what the model it is. The only model number I see is on the bottom side of the skimmer cover, and that indicates SP1082, SP1084 – but after some reseach it looks like my skimmers are wide mouth (16 screws) which would be model: SP-1085-1 . If anyone is familiar with this, I would definitley like confirmation – I plan on calling Hayward when they re-open on Monday if I’m unable to figure it out.

Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you

Unable to post attachments - not sure why ?