Like Al said, if you do use skimmer socks, you will be surprised at how much little stuff they catch --- especially pollen in my case. They do a great job of keeping a lot of the stuff out of your filter, but the flipside is you have to go and empty them out frequently. Like every couple of hours. Worth it though, because of how well they catch the pollen, in my opinion. If I wasn't going to be around the house for several hours, I removed it while I was gone and then put it back on when I got back home.