How Do You Winterize Your Main Drain?

[Lexsis79]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are new pool owners and we need some advise on winterizing our main drain. Our system is set up like this: our main drain is plumbed into our skimmer so in the bottom of our skimmer we have two holes; one coming in from the main drain and the 2nd going to the pump. I also want to mention there is only one line running into our pump.

So our question is this: how do you get the water our of the main drain line? We cannot blow it out (we think there may be a one way valve preventing air or water from going back into the pool) and we cannot "suck" it out because the line just fills up again.

We live in a cold climate that can see -20 in the winter so we are concerned about leaving water sitting in this line. Any ideas?

Thanks

[jkusmier]

I'm not a builder, and I imagine someone here can offer a more informative response. The second hole at the bottom of the skimmer CAN be plumbed into the mains, although I've only seen it plugged or just dead-ended, e.g. into the concrete bond beam. Surely there must be a way to drain that line, since plumbing it to the mains is not only contemplated, but actually done. Have you tried contacting the manufacturer (probably Hayward)? How do you blow your lines - compressor or shop vac? Many people find that shop vacs (5+ HP) generate more air volume than compressors. Maybe that will do the trick? Marine/RV antifreeze ( propylene glycol) is only slightly denser than water. In my experience, it sinks when running into the pool (probably because it is being continuously diluted) but floats in the skimmer, so just pouring it into that second hole probably won't do much.