Return water eyeball

[Bekka]

I have checked out our pool manual thoroughly and there is absolutely no mention what position the eyeball should be in. I have a 24 foot round AG vinyl pool. Hayward pump. My pool has one eyeball. The skimmer is perhaps two feet to the left of the return eyeball. I am unsure if the eyeball is suppose to be pointing towards the left or the right, straight ahead, down towards the floor, or ripple the surface. Can someone help me out here???
Thanks, Bekka

[waterbear]

Most people position their eyeballs so the water will move in a circular direction around the pool. It does not matter if this is clock wise or counter clock wise (water going down a drain conter clock wise in the Northern Hemispere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere is an urban legend!)

[Poconos]

In your particular situation I'd point the eyeball away from the skimmer. Aim toward the surface to enhance skimming action, aim lower to enhance mixing such as after adding chemicals. Whether you point up or down probably doesn't matter that much as long as it's away from the skimmer.
Al

[matt4x4]

a nice circular flow pattern is the best when skimming, however, too much "spin" in your pool, and surface debris will flow right by your skimmer.
When running an auto vac like a kreepy Krauley, it may cause the kk to miss sections in your pool and straight out may be more beneficial.
You have to play with it under each circumstance.

[ShelleyAnn]

Last year I had my return going counterclockwise away from the skimmer and so it rippled the surface just like the manual said to. We had to skim the surface all the time. This year, for an experiment, I aimed it in the direction of the skimmer to see if I could get the ladybug auto cleaner to stay at the far end of the pool. I also aimed it down so it wouldn't just blow into the skimmer. Well...it's almost like a tide has hit the pool! I absolutely can't believe the difference. Every speck of surface debris goes into the skimmer now (the hours of hand skimming last year!) and the pool thermometer practically surfs the water is moving so fast. It's quite amazing. I recommend experimenting with this for sure.

[iwannapool]

So aiming it down but towards the skimmer worked best? Sorry, I couldn't quite tell what gave you the great results. Thanks.

[ShelleyAnn]

That's right.

[mas985]

I found that trying to point the eyeball as along the side of the pool to get circular motion didn't work to well for me. I got dead spots in some areas where debris would accumulate. What I found did work well was to point them across the pool. This created two circular eddies which ran past each skimmer slower and more effectively than one giant circle.

I think you have to experiment some to see what works for your pool. Add some balls, ping pong work well, to the pool when adjusting to see how the water flows and how quick the skimmer picks it up. This helps to find the dead spots as well where debris will accumulate. You need a calm day as well since the wind affects where the debris ends up. Sometime aiming directly at the skimmer works well too.