Hydrotools pool cover pump - submersible?

[AnnaK]

Great, thanks.

In the meantime, I'll go up on the hill and begin hacking a hole into the ice. It's been below freezing for about 48 hrs here and there's a good layer of ice now.

[AnnaK]

The ice kept getting thicker and thicker and I could see that one serious snow come January would overflow the pool when it thaws. So I put an auger blade on the electric drill and cut a hole in the ice. Lots of small holes really close together until I had a perforated circle and after one good whack with the mallet I had a nice hole.

Then I put the little pump in. Hey, what could happen? If it wasn't submersible it would blow the breaker or the fuse or trip something on the outlet. I stayed well away from the water and the metal parts of the pool in case electricity leaked out. See how much I know about this stuff?

It worked great! Several hours later it had actually taken 3" of water out. By then it was getting dark and I unhooked everything. I'm going to shoot for another 2 or 3" which will get the level below the light fixture which is the lowest opening in my pool.

Maybe none of this is necessary but in all honesty, I miss my pool so much that I'm inventing busywork just to be involved. Silly, isn't it?

[Kimrst]

When we empty our frame pool each fall we just use a piece of hose and get some suction on it and throw the other end over the side and let gravity remove the water. I can usually get most of the water out using this method. I don't know why it works, it just does, must be physics someplace. But I do know that if you loose the suction you loose the drawing power. Maybe in cold weather it would freeze up too fast? We have had lots of rain here in lower Michigan, the snow is gone and the yards are muddy and gross. I'd almost prefer the snow back. Kimrst

[MarkC]

That is known as a siphon. It's the same way your toilet empties. The bigger the height difference between the water level and the discharge end of the hose the faster it drains, up to a certain point. You can start the siphon effect even without suction by slowly imersing one end of the hose into the pool and then keep feeding in the rest of the hose slowly until the other end is also under water, you have to make sure that you allowed all the air to get out of the hose. Put your thumb over one end making sure that the other end remains under water. Lift it over the side of the pool and get the hose end below the surface of the water before take your thumb off. The water should start to flow and will do so until either your pool water level is even with your discharge end in elevation or you drain so much out that it sucks air at the hose end in the pool. I use this method and weight the end down on a step so that it drains to that level and goes no further.