Every pool should have a skimmer to be able to control the level of water, the presence of leaf bugs, lizards, and some other debris.
Your water should be halfway above or below the skimmer to ensure water flow. You need to make sure that every week it is maintained. If your water is not flowing through, it could run dry, and possibly burn over heat. But if your water is in the middle of the skimmer and it is flowing, then there is no cause for alarm. There’s no need to lower the water.
Can a pool have too much water in it?
Your pool area has suddenly started getting flooded with water, and you are probably wondering if it is normal for a pool.
Well, your pool can have too much water in it. The pool water level should not be above the skimmer. However, it shouldn’t be below the skimmer.
When should I lower the water level in my pool?
You might be wondering what height the water should be at in your swimming pool. Many people use a faded line, a pool liner, or a step on their staircase to gauge.
The best way for many people is to use a fading line, a pool liner, or a step on their staircase to gauge. So, you should have a typical pool skimmer. Normally, you should get a plastic skimmer faceplate, not tile.
Your pool water level shouldn’t be above the skimmer. If you notice that it’s above the skimmer, try and lower it. But don’t drain it below the skimmer. Always ensure that it is not above or below the skimmer level.
If the water level is almost halfway up the skimmer and a little bit lower than the skimmer, the water level is actually on the low side.
The water level should be between 1/2 and 2/3 of the skimmer face to be underwater. What can happen if your water level is too low inside your pool is that your pool pump can start to suction air, which is not good. It can lead to cavitation and can potentially run dry which can cause it to burn out.
Do I need to lower the water level in my above-ground pool?
For an average above-ground pool, let’s say a 24 foot pool, which is probably 85% of the above-ground pools in the world, that pool holds about 12,4000 pounds of water, which is a tremendous amount of weight.
To prevent overflow of water, it is best to keep the water level halfway below or above the skimmer.
What happens if the water level is too high?
There is a skimmer opening on the sidewall of a pool, so let’s say you can sit there watching when your pool has gotten too full or your skimmer and timer are not functioning well.
When the pool water level is very high, it becomes prone to having leaves, debris, bugs, and other things in the water. It can also change the chemistry of the water and make it turn green.
What is the correct pool water level?
The water level in your swimming pool should be approximately halfway up the mouth of the skimmer.
The reason why is that if the water level were to drop below the skimmer, then it’s possible that your pump could run dry, which could cause it to overheat or possibly break. And if you have the water level too high, then the skimmer won’t be able to skim the water effectively, so aim half the water halfway up the skimmer.
Now in theory, you can go a little bit higher than the skimmer. Halfway represents a nice and easy way to explain to customers where to keep the water.
The reality is that if you live in an area where you get a lot of evaporation, you might have to find yourself always having to top up the water a little too often.
What to do if a pool is overflowing from rain?
A little extra water in your pool can’t hurt, right? If you have had a rainstorm or even several light rain showers, your pool water chemistry and pool equipment will need some help.
You should follow the steps below to clean a pool after a very heavy rainfall.
- Sweep and clean the pool deck.
- Remove debris from the pool manually: Use a hand leaf net or skimmer to remove all leaves, twigs, and debris from the water.
- Turn on the pump and filter: You want to get the pump circulating again to remove all the contaminants that the rain must have pushed into your pool.
- Brush the pool: You’ll need a good pool brush to remove dirt and debris from your pool steps and ladder. If there is a ground at the bottom of your pool, push the dirt towards it.
- Vacuum the pool: Turn your filter to waste before vacuuming. This would keep the debris from entering your filter and would actually drain some of the extra water from your pool.
- Drain some of the water: If there’s still a lot of water after vacuuming, you have a couple of options. You can continue vacuuming the waste until you remove enough water from the pool, or you can stop vacuuming, keep the filter turned to waste, connect the backwash hose to your filter waste port, and turn the pump on. You can pump all the water line till the water line reaches your desired level, which is about the halfway mark on your skimmer. You can also use a sump pump attached to your garden hose.
- Test and balance the water: Because a lot of rain and debris affect the chemistry of your water, use test strips or a liquid test kit, and then balance the water. Now pay special attention to the pH, which may have dropped considerably, especially if the rain was acidic. If pH was affected, then it’s likely that alkalinity was too. So be sure to test both.
- Check the chlorine level. Rain could introduce contaminants to the water. When the sanitizers start fighting them off, the sanitizer, also known as free and available chlorine, will drop, leaving your pool vulnerable.
- Examine the calcium and cyanuric acid levels: They may have been diluted by rain; soft water may cause issues with your pool and equipment; and a low cyanuric level indicates that the chlorine is not stable.
Consider shocking your pool. It is not absolutely necessary to shock your pool after it rains, but it’s also not a bad idea either.
Does backwashing lower the water level?
Your pool is probably dirty or it’s springtime. I want to backwash your pool.
When you backwash, you lose a reasonable amount of water. That is why it is advisable not to use any chemicals in the water before you backwash; otherwise you’re losing a lot of money.
What is the purpose of backwashing a pool?
Now if you’re talking about the back washing process, it means you have a sand filter. You need to know your clean operational pressure and backwash your swimming pool filter when it is 7 to 10 PSI higher than your clean operational pressure.
Overtime, as your filter runs, the filter medium will become clogged, and when you backwash, it forces all the debris and dirt caught in the media in your filter to dislodge and then is washed out through your waste or drain port. Backwash increases the water flow rate and also prevents cloudiness of water overtime.
How often should I backwash my pool?
If you have a sand filter or a Diatomaceous Earth or DE filter, backwashing is the process of reversing the flow of pool water through the filter. If you have a cartridge filter, you do not need to backwash it at all over time as When your filter runs, the filter medium will become clawed, and when you backwash your filter, it forces all the debris into the waste media.
Backwash when your pressure is above 10 PSI over your normal operating pressure.
Do you have to lower the pool water for winter?
It is very easy to forget about your pool during winter, but leaving it to look after itself or even switching it off is a sure way to find yourself with a green pool or a seized pump when you switch it back on.
The primary reason for doing this is that you have to lower the water level in order to evacuate all of the water from the plumbing system. Now in theory, maybe the return lines, you could apply air from the pump room through the lines and blow all of the water into the pool while underwater and then manage to plug them.
At least that is something that you can do with certain pools, which simply cannot be drained. You have to do that, but you cannot evacuate all of the water out of the skimmer, so you have to at the very least winterize the plumbing system.
You have to lower the water level below the mouth of the skimmer such that you can blow all of the water out of the skimmer body as well as the skimmer plumbing lines.
How much water should I leave in the pool for winter?
The skimmer and plumbing lines need to have all of the water evacuated for winterizing, and the lower water level of the swimming pool makes emptying possible.
However, after winterizing, you should leave the water level below the skimmer so that air can blow water out of the skimmer body during winter.
What happens if the pool’s water level is too high in winter?
During winter, different things like snow, rain, and ice can get into the pool and make the water overflow.
Debris, dirt, mica, and some other stuff might be trapped in the water, especially during winter when the pool water level is most likely to get too high, and also when the water level is above the skimmer, that dirt, leaves, and bugs might block the filter basket and might lead to clogging.
