Hard Plumbing

[mdenegre]

I will be replacing my filter shortly and would like to hard plumb it also. I have a 24' AG. How would one reccomend handling the intake side? The skimmer has a graduated pipe designed to fit different size hoses. Is there an adapter for threaded pipe? Is there a skimmer with a threaded tail?

[scsteven]

That fitting unscrews and you can buy the correct size fitting at the hardware store. That's what we did. Just make sure that it's schedule 40 PVC. I really will get pics posted once the pool work is done. I promise!

[mdenegre]

My skimmer is one piece there is no fitting on it, just the tail piece.

[hrsdennis]

Doughboy makes a hard plum adapter. One end attaches to the skimmer or return and the other end accepts 1 1/2" PVC pipe. Two hose clamps tighten the thing up and you are hard plumbing. Doughboy is one of the few styles of skimmers that are not PVC compatible.

Here is a trick I used before the adapter became available. Take a 1 ½” male adapter. Meaning slip on one side and male threaded on the other. On the inside of the threaded end, use a utility blade and scrape out some of the insides, until it fits snuggly over your skimmer fitting. Use plenty of PVC glue and you are all set.

Later, Dennis

[Swanny]

If you go to Home Depot or Lowes you can get a rubber adapter that will fit over the skimmer and the pvc. It has two hose clamps one on each side. It works great and limits vibrations. It is often with the sump pump plumbing.

[CarlD]

That same rubber adapter is used to make permanent repairs in damaged PVC (like when the HVAC guy damaged a tub drain over my kitchen!).

There are also PVC fittings that allow you to go to clamp-on hoses. It's usually an end cap with female threads. You then screw your clamp-on fitting into it, with lots of tape dope and you are good to go.

[tenax]

careful with the rubber adaptors..if they are going to be exposed to elements sun, hot and cold temp variations) they will go brittle and crack over time. i had one in my poolshed stuff and i ditched it. it was about 7 years old, had not been exposed to the sun but had temperature extremes.it was cracked and brittle as can be. i'm not sure that it wasn't the chlorine that might have caused it's condition more than anything.

regarding schedule 40 pvc. yep, most home depot stores will sell a variation of it.they may also call it electrical conduit and it'll be grey. i've used it for in a pinch fixes but use a lot of glue if you use it as it is not speced for use in watertight applications. it's meant to be used to contain electrical wire so the tolerances i've been told are not as strenous as the white pvc sched 40. it may also have different burst strength etc compared to the white. like i say, i've used it..i am using a few chunks of it and no problem except it definitely was not as water tight as the white and i had to use jb weld to seal the edges where i had some small leaks.

[traceyb]

I would also like to see some pix. We are having trouble thinking about the aqualuminator. Seems they made it a hair smaller than the other fitting. Darn Baaaa staaads! Anyway, we love the light, but would love for some posts of photos of hard plumbing with and with out the Aqualuminator.