I have one of those supposedly self-cleaning pools, which isn't cleaning all that well - so - I was just wondering how "normal" pools work before I turn off the cleaning system completely.
My basic question is "How does a normal pool mix up the water?", and, "How does a normal pool suck water from the skimmers?"
I'm guessing there is no mixing of water in a normal pool; and I'm guessing the skimmers suck water from the surface and from below the surface.
To explain why I ask these simple questions ... in my pool, there are about 15 pop-up heads that clean debris by mixing up the water, pushing the water and debris to the deep end of the pool, where a steep-sloped entrapment basin is used to funnel water & debris out via the one main drain at the deepest point in the pool.
These 15 PCC2000 pop-up heads all work off a single pump, where the flow of water is *not* filtered. The water goes from the two skimmers to the cleaner pump and back to the 15 pop-up heads via two Paramount water valves (in a setup called a 9-port system) on the pool deck.
The main pool (exclusive of spa) has one floor drain and two wall drains, one of which is at the deep end near the floor drain, and the other of which is below the skimmer in the shallow end.
Note: The spa has two drains on the floor, and a separate pump solely for the water jets. Plus it has some of the 15 pop-up heads.
The reason I ask the two questions is two-fold:
- I plan on turning off the (ineffective) cleaning system for a while.
- I don't understand the wall drain underneath one skimmer (i.e., I'm not sure if it's for the cleaning system, or if it's for the filtering system.)
If I turn off the (currently ineffective) cleaning system, then the pool water will still filter from the single main floor drain and from the two spa floor drains (and, I guess, from the two wall drains).
But, nothing will mix the water (and I'll have to vacuum debris, but, there isn't all that much debris in the summer anyway).
Hence my two (seemingly basic) questions: Q1: Do normal pools bother to *mix* the water for the filter? Q2: Do normal pools have a wall drain below one skimmer but not the other?