How to remove pool drain cover 9 feet under water to check for a clogged pipe?

SF Man-

btw....in nearly 35 years, never experienced a block main drain in any pools I was responsible for. They're pretty hard to block permanently with the types of debris typically seen in a pool.

Can you run water from the garden hose from the filter area by plumbing the hose into the system?

cheers Bob

Which costs less ?

Obtaining a scuba tank so you can work underwater ?

- or -

Draining the pool so you can work on it sans-scuba gear and refilling it ?

D'uh...

~~ Evan

This type of filter isn't designed to be backwashed (it's a cartridge filter) but it does have a drain valve.

I will try to shove a hose into the drain valve (about 1.5 inch diameter pipe abover the filter pump) and see if that works - but - it's a good 90 feet away from the pool main drain ... so ... I'm not sure how that would work.

But, it's a good idea to try!

Hi Evan,

Thanks for the advice. It's my fault for not mentioning that draining the pool isn't feasible.

If you look at some of my other threads, the well only pumps about 400 gallons of water a day. The pool is 38K gallons. That would take almost 100 days to fill the pool again - and that's assuming no other water goes anywhere but to the pool. Can't be done.

The only way to refill a drained pool out here is to truck the water in.

So, a used set of scuba tanks costs far far far less than refilling the pool would.

It's my fault for not mentioning that draining the pool doesn't appear to be an option (unless I can rent 38K gallon storage tanks for a few weeks).

Take a largish bucket and cut a window in it. Bolt (and seal) a flexible plexiglass pane to the window. Install an air nozzle to the top. Add sufficient weights and connect your new diving bell to an air compressor.

When I was a lad, we did this to scrub the pool's wall at the Boy's Club. There was no shortage of volunteers to take a turn with a stiff brush, very few of which drowned.

Yes.

Just rent gear from a dive shop after you get your replacement c card.

Drain the pool, or get your SCUBA gear on.

Another concern with this would be type of liner. If it is vinyl and you empty it, you run a real distinct risk of floating the liner with all sorts of nasty side effects.

Read carefully.......

consider a temporary (& reversible) re-plumbing effort to ALLOW you to PRESSURIZE the pipe TO the main drain line. I'm not suggesting shoving the hose down the pipe, let the pressurized water do the work. DO NOT USE COMPRESSED AIR UNLESS YOU HAVE COPPER PIPING.

Think outside the box (but not on the far side of the moon).

Start looking for a realtor.

It's probably not clogged but broken. You're likely sucking air.

When I had a pool, I did patches without any tanks. The only issue was buoyancy. At the deep end, I had SWMBO hold me down with the sweep. Trusting, huh. ;-) ...though something clogging the bottom drain is *very* unlikely. It has a cover, no?

Or, even worse, a shrunken liner.

So would RENTING a set so you wouldn't have them cluttering up your garage.

So would HIRING someone with the proper equipment to dive on the drain.

So would HIRING a proper pool maintenance/repair firm to diagnose and fix the problem without ever getting wet, instead of turning this relatively simple job into the frickin' Poseidon Adventure...

Evan for President

Get a weight belt and hold your breath. You should be able to spend a minute at a time under there right now, and given a little practice, maybe a minute and a half or longer.

Jon

Often when the bottom drain is clogged it's a collapsed pipe. Most people learn to live without.

drain jet

It's a gunnite in-ground built-in pool.

I don't think it has a liner, per se.

Draining will take 100 days to fill from the hose (and that's w/o any water used in the house otherwise) so it's not an option.

That is a great idea. I called the local dive shop who said if I show them ID, they will look up my PADI status online ... and I don't even 'need' the card!

I agree. But ... it's tedious and, since I don't know what I'm looking for per se, it's time consuming. I would rather just stay on the bottom for a while (plus, it would be fun to get back into scuba gear since I haven't dived in over 30 years after being an advanced PADI open water diver as a college student).

I hope not. The pool had an inch thick of mud in it when I bought the house (forclosure) so it easily 'could' be clogged.

It's a looooong story. The short story is my skimmers don't work the way most people's skimmers do.

1. I have a filtration system that has a single 18" suction port at the deepest end of the pool (8 or 9 feet) (plus a safety port on the side wall). That filtration system has nothing to do with the skimmers.
2. Then, there is a built-in vacuum-less cleaning system, which takes water from the two skimmers and simply squirts it back into the pool, unfiltered (other than baskets at the skimmers and pump) in order to push debris to the deep end of the pool (which has a cliff-like dropoff in order to trap the debris on the bottom of the pool).

So, the skimmers have nothing to do with the filtering, unfortunately.

Dude...

You sound like a noob... You often have to purchase water to fill a pool at a premium rate and have it trucked in via a tanker truck...

Maybe you should try to hold your breath while you check the pool drain...

~~ Evan

I 'do' notice slight air bubbles coming out of the water going back into the pool.

What does a pool drain actually 'look' like (cut away view)?

What does it do? I 'thought' it was just a pipe ... with a 18-inch cover?

Is it more than that?

SWMBO ?

Yes. It has a cover. And a filter basket on the pool deck. But what else could make a pool pump not suck water when I move the valve to POOL ONLY versus SPA ONLY?

That is, the water flows perfectly when I'm in spa only mode (it empties the spa if I'd let it); but the water flows badly when I'm in pool only mode?

What else can it be other than a clog or a broken pipe (which I doubt 'cuz that would be ten feet underground)?