Connecting Pool Hoses

by Felicia Williams

I never knew there were so many varieties of pool hoses and hose adapters. I’m not so sure if it was the pool filter manufacturer or the installation company (which later went out of business) but as I replace my old setup with the Hayward EC40 DE filter system I see that I now have to get the hoses that affix to everything with a clamp.

Here’s how my old system’s hoses connected to everything:

This is how my new system’s hoses connect:

Because of the new connectors, I had to re-fit the system with adapters. The adapters are inexpensive and easy to install as long as the local pool supply store has them in stock (FYI, never listen to what the Namco salesperson tells you. They say they have them in stock, but they stop ordering the part early in the season.)

Let me back up for a minute to better explain what I did. My above ground pool has two ports (methods for attaching the pool to the filter). There’s a hose that comes from the skimmer and then there’s a bottom drain. As a result, I need three hoses to connect to/from the filter; one from each drain and one back to the pool.

Pool Hoses and Filtering

The dual drainage system added a new wrinkle to the filter system. I had to find a valve that enabled me to use either the skimmer or bottom drain or a combination of both. I ended up finding a 3-way valve, but in order to connect it to the pump I need a “nipple.” The phrase sent my 14-year-old daughter into an uncontrollable case of the embarrassed giggles when the salesperson told us what we needed.

Armed with the nipple and the valve, I connected it to the pump (along with a sufficient amount of silicon ‘plumbers’ tape). I now realize after connecting it that I really need a bent ‘L-shaped’ nipple so that I won’t have to bend completely over to see whether the valve is pulling from the top or the bottom, but that will be a different post.

Because the valve ends were female, I needed two male adapters in order to connect the hose. So, I searched around and found the necessary adapters to fit my hose/clamp system.

Pool Hose Clamping Trick

Because I needed an ‘L-shaped’ adapter to connect to the bottom drain PVC pipe when I converted from the old system to the new, the salesperson told me to use a hair blow drier to warm the hose to it to stretch over the adapter making it easier to clamp on.

That advice was great, but I heard even better advice from a middle-aged woman who yelled from the back. She said that a pot or bowl of hot water works just as well. Guess what…the hot water worked even better. All I had to do was bring a pot of hot water down to the pool, insert the end of the hose into the hot water for less than a minute and it was ready to easily slip onto the adapter. After it slipped on I was able to clamp it tightly with the metal clamp.

Once I had everything clamped, I figured it was time to try the old Hayward EC40 DE filter and the newly purchased pump. Everything worked just fine. I did have to make a few minor adjustments to fix the leaks from the pump to filter connection, but everything else seemed to be working just fine.

Next: How I got my pump working

About the Author: Felicia Williams is a wife, mother and grandmother who likes to write about a host of topics.

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Last Modified: 24 March 2020