Quote Originally Posted by markphin
except that when you backwash with a DE filter you are flushing out your DE, possibly unnecesarily. When lowering pool levels, do through waste, and backwash only when necessary.

Personally, unless the water level is up to the coping, I let heat and wind lower it for me. Just can't beat free water. Skimmers still work, just not as effectively.

I guess it depends what type of skimmer you have. Mine have a basket with an inner ring that floats up and down. Normally they inner ring is floating and stuff goes in it and gets trapped in the basket. When the water gets too high the inner ring reaches its travel limit and stuff stops getting trapped as it just floats over the top of the ring.