Swimming Pool Orientation and Skimmer Placement

In the Phoenix and Scottsdale areas, for that matter in all of Maricopa County, all pools should have an East/West orientation. Actually the best direction would be in a East/Northeast to West/Southwest position. So if north were at the twelve o'clock position on a clock face, then the pool would be angled from about the two o'clock to the eight o'clock position. For most of the year, the wind comes from the west/southwest. During the summer monsoon, often the dust storms originate from the northeast or easterly mountain ranges, occasionally from the southwest plain. The whole point of this discussion is to place the skimmers in that part of the pool where the wind is going to blow debris.

Although, as I pointed out before, nothing gets blown out of your swimming pool, it sure does get blown around inside of it! So the idea is to let mother nature blow the debris towards a skimmer. So what you really want here is to have two skimmers, each one of which is located at both ends of a oval pool. During most of the year, and especially during the spring, the wind in Arizona blows from the west or southwest, this will blow most of the floating debris towards the skimmer located on the east end of the pool. Obviously, during the monsoon season, the wind will usually blow from the other direction, whereby the other skimmer will pick up most of the debris.

If both skimmers are attached to the same pump the water flow from these skimmers can be regulated by a three-way valve just prior to the pump. My choice would be for a Jandy 3-way valve to be installed here. This way the suction from one or the other skimmer can be completely shut off, or left so that there is suction from both. Having two skimmers installed in your pool is preferable for several reasons, the first is what I indicated above, the second is that they will store more debris, the third is the fact that you can, if necessary, use the second as a connection for an automatic suction type of cleaner, if you don't have a dedicated line.

The above information concerning monsoon wind direction is applicable only for the Glendale, Phoenix and Scottsdale areas, the more distant you are from these cities, the more likely your local monsoon dust storm/wind direction will diverge. Also realize this is an idealized design. A lot of and maybe most pools in the valley here are of a modified rectangular shape, with the skimmer being placed on that part of the pool that is closest to the pump and filter area. The next post will be about inlet placement and direction.