Re: No skimmer door
A properly working skimmer weir door serves two purposes.
1) when the pump is on - the top of the weir creates a "dam" effect to actually draw the water and floating debris into the skimmer. The "dam" effect influences the water into the skimmer by restricting the amount of water in the skimmer as compared to the rest of the pool. This creates more suction of the water on the surface rather than below the surface.
Try this: take your garden hose and turn it on. Hold it underwater parallel to the surface about 12", facing away from you, and observe the effect on the surface water. Now move the hose closer to the surface and observe.
The surface water should be more influenced by the hose the close to the surface you get. Similarly, the water being drawn into the skimmer should be mostly surface water, thus the floating debris, bugs, etc.
If you have a weir door, next time you're cleaning out the skimmer basket, turn the pump on and ever so slightly, close the weir door without starving the water flow. You should see the pool water rushing into the skimmer, with a tremendous amount the surface debris being drawn to the skimmer, moreso than at the normal level in which the weir floats.
2) When the pump turns off - the skimmer weir door floats up to close the skimmer box. This in effect prevents the surface debris just sucked into the skimmer from backflowing into the pool.
So Matt, while I disagree with you and that the weir door DOES help the ants get sucked up, your reasoning is correct in that too high a water level will prevent the weir from working properly.
The pressure mounted weir doors are simply spring loaded shafts that pop out to wedge the base of the weir in place. The door itself will open and close with the top of the weir floating with the top of the water level to create this draw of surface water into the skimmer.
Sean Assam
Commercial Product Sales Manager - AquaCal AutoPilot Inc. Mobile: 954-325-3859
e-mail: sean@teamhorner.com --- www.autopilot.com - www.aquacal.com
Bookmarks