Skimmer Socks - Thoughts???

[joliecharlie]

I'll be happy to send black lab hairs, spiders, frogs of all sizes, pinestraw and many other suspicious looking bits of junk so you will have something to catch!

[tphaggerty]

I am a HUGE skimmer sock fan, but I'm not using them now. They really work their magic during pollen season - which is spring/early summer here in NY - not so much after that.

I have 10 or so, just use them up and clean them all at once when I have the last set in the skimmers. But right now, it isn't really worth it.

[Spensar]

Started using the socks a couple of weeks ago and am a fan. Sometimes there isn't much, but other times when the garden is being kick up or after a heavy rain and wind the gunk and small particles it picks up is impressiven not to mention the hair after a girls sleepover.

Has anyone used these on the pump filter basket? I have a kreepy krawler that I use once in a while but it plugs right into the intake with the skimmer basket out and I would like to catch the fine gunk as well.

Anyone used a sock in both the skimmer and the pump basket?

[cschnurr]

Spensar,
Waterbear previously recommended that these should not be used on the pump basket in order to avoid potential damage to the pump.
See Posts #22 & 23 of this thread.

They say great minds think alike... but maybe mediocre minds do too.

[Spensar]

Thanks. DOH!

[Hszwill]

I am using skimmer socks for the first time and I LOVE them! I wish that I would have found them 4 years ago. Daily I wash the nastiness out of each sock and put it back into the skimmer basket with a rock to weigh it down. When I look at my beautiful water, I wonder where all this sandy film comes from off the surface of the water, but I am just thrilled because of how it has drastically reduced the amount we backwash now. After 3 weeks they are looking pretty ragged, so I too will change them monthly. What a cheap way to save the filter and DE!

[CarlD]

I am using skimmer socks for the first time and I LOVE them! I wish that I would have found them 4 years ago. Daily I wash the nastiness out of each sock and put it back into the skimmer basket with a rock to weigh it down. When I look at my beautiful water, I wonder where all this sandy film comes from off the surface of the water, but I am just thrilled because of how it has drastically reduced the amount we backwash now. After 3 weeks they are looking pretty ragged, so I too will change them monthly. What a cheap way to save the filter and DE!

Thanks for bringing a great thread back to life. I'm still using the skimmer socks--each lasts about of month with be rinsed each day--even during the pollen season where they look like they are covered in yellow spackle. The rest of the time the past is gray and not as thick.

Two of the CHEAPEST improvements to your filter are skimmer socks in the skimmer and a third to 1/2 cup of DE in your sand filter just after you backwash--no need to spend big bucks and big headache on Zeo-sand type substitutes. If you spend $15 a year these it's a lot--I use 3 to 5 skimmer socks--that about $6-$8, and I'm STILL on the 10lb of DE I started using at the end of the 2005(?) season so this is the 4th full season--and the box cost me $8! That's averaging out at $10 a year for a drastic improvement!

[AnnaK]

Speaking of skimmer socks, has anyone noticed that the new ones seem to be thinner somehow? Lighter weight than last season's? I don't know whether it's the weave or the thread but in my use of the ones I bought in May they don't seem to catch as much of the fine debris as they did last year.

AnnaK