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Seal hole in skimmer
I have a large Savio Skimmer that has a crack on the bottom of it. I tried sealing with a marine epoxy and that worked for a while but it has since peeled up and started leaking again. I thought about fiberglass but was wondering if anyone had any other ideas first.
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Grind the crack out a little and use polyurethan sealant. Nothing will really glue to that plastic but poly will get you by for a while as it stays flexible.
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Thanks for replying Kent. I tried the PL polyurethane in the past also and it did get my by for a little while. I guess I was wondering if there was something that I could coat the bottom with that would help me cure the problem instead of doing a temporary fix. My skimmer is grouted into the pond wall so I hate to have to remove it as it would be a major project, not to mention the cost of a new skimmer.
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I had a hole about the size of a quarter in my liner right beside my skimmer. I tried everything and nothing would hold. I finally tried cutting a small piece of Gutter Tape about twice as big as the hole and used my hair dryer to heat it up while pressing really hard on it. It has been on more than a year and not peeled off or leaking yet.. Then I made a skippy out of a Rubbermaid Stocktank that the horses had been drinking out of. Knew it had a crack but didn't want to buy a new one just yet. So I cleaned and dried it and stuck a piece of Gutter tape on it and heated it with the hair dryer. Never leaked another drop at that crack. Then realized it had another crack. So I dried it off put on another piece of gutter tape and didn't heat it. It leaked. Had to peel it off and put another piece on and heated it. No leaks. If it starts leaking again I will buy a new one, but I try to conserve when I can. While heating you need to press it all down very firmly.
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Is the Savio made out of polyethylene? If so rough up the area and try hot glue, which is also polyethylene and ought to stick. I'd probably drill a hole in each end of the crack to stop it splitting.
How did you manage to crack one or those things in the first place? Is the bottom of the skimmer still under stress?
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May want to look at this. My DH works in a factory that makes plastic stock tanks and he does repair work all of the time with a stick of plastic and hot iron.
Plastic Speed Tip Welding
For those that want to repair their plastic tank with extreme precision, one of the best ways to do so is with speed tip welding. Similar to metal welding, this method used to make high quality repairs on plastic tanks uses a device that looks similar to a soldering iron. The speed tip welder is fitted with a plastic weld rod. The speed tip heats up this plastic weld rod and also presses the rod out of the tip. The result is a high precision bead of soft plastic that can be laid into a joint and fused.
Speed tip welding is perfect for many types of repairs such as doing cracks or affixing to metal. This method is also used to make repairs to plastic tanks that have damage in tight corners. Speed tip welding is cost effective and perfect for hobbyists or professionals.
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The other cheater way is to rough it up and grind the crack a little then clean it with alcohol. Then pour the bottom with Plasti-dip. You can buy it at Home Depot in the paint section. It will form an inner shell and if it lifts off in the future you can polyurethane it back in place.
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Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm still considering which way to go with all of the suggestions, but I'm sure whatever I choose it will work. Thanks again.
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Can you get to both sides of the of the skimmer where the crack is?
If I would use a uniseal and a pvc and pvc cap. choose a pipe size that is safely larger than the crack. This will work for a very very long time.
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koidust, took what i was going to say. many times folks enlarge the outlets on skimmers so they can gravity flow them. if you can drill out the crack. install a shower drain or some sort of bulkhaed or flange like a toliet flange. and use a short peice of pvc and a end cap. or instead of pvc pipe and end cap. put a test plug in in the hole.
if the crack is in a spot were the plastic itself moves some and reason for the peeling. i might drill a couple holes on each side of the crack. use some bolts, washer, savio, washer, nut, then get some mesh wire like chicken wire or like. and wrap around the bolts. then use some sort of silicon / polyurthen / other. and smear it all over the bolts, wish mess, and the crack. perhaps using some black waterfall spray foam. or perhaps "great stuff" in the red can spray foam. ((it is a closed cell spray foam))
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I like Sandyd's suggestion the best. It occurred to me while I was cleaning the pond today that the hot glue would work better if you got the damaged part of the skimmer hot too, but that's still only plastic brazing. Plastic welding would be better.
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3M marine sealant works on most plastics. I am not sure how much different that is than the PL polyurethane roofing sealer that Kent uses.