My pool has the winter cover on. The water underneath, I am hoping, is clean. But the water on top of the cover is quite dirty.
What kind of pump should I use for discarding this water before opening the pool? I've seen some "wet/dry shop vac" type of pumps at local stores. Is any of these adequate? Will they fail if a few leaves enter along with the water?
It would be nice to have that pump double as garage sweeper (pour water, vacuum the water with the dirt from the garage floor), and so it would be nice if a shop-vac will fit the bill.
Another option is to use the winterizing pump, which I don't have. Though I may get it if I gather the courage to winterize myself. When winterizing the pool, a fairly strong pump is needed to clear water from the pipes, and I'm assuming that such a pump could also see double-use to vacuum the spring-time dirty water, but I'm not sure if using such a pump on the polluted water would make it contaminate the pool before winterizing.
Best Answer
Use a siphon. Get decent garden hose (that won't collapse if you draw a mild vacuum) and that's flexible enough to stay in the bottom of the pool area.
Run it from the center of the "puddle" to a point a couple feet below it in altitude, e.g. That storm drain.
From this bottom point, prime the siphon by sucking all the air out of the the garden hose. At this point, water will siphon continuously until the puddle is drained or the high end of the hose goes above water.
Once air gets into it, you'll hear a slurping sound, which means you lost the prime. Fix why that happened, and re-prime.
A shop-vac is an excellent way to suck on it. If you did it with your mouth, you'd be tempted to raise it up to your face, and that end must be below the intake end.
The greater the height differential, the faster the flow. The higher the peak is from the inlet, the more difficult it will be to prime.