Joe, Thank you,We will go and take a look at the performance pros.. The only thing we have concerns about with the externals is where to put them? With the water garden built off the side of the house, the top falls(not used often) water pipe is actually under the rock up to the roof (15 foot straight up lift).I believe we would have to go low ,down by what is a holding tank similar to a pond less feature. Can you tell me how large of area I would need to have to house the pump? We may be able to find a way to create a small space,, but with all the large stone we would have to bring in the skidster to move stone which right now is not an easy task. We do have a space in the block walls that hold the hot tub as well, but not sure how that would work for plumbing.Or if the pump running all the time would be to noticeable to those using the hot tub.. I guess I am off to research more. Thank you for your input we appreciate it. Mary

Ted, are you a salesman? I would like to make some very basic points to rebut your [false] claims: "The pool panels hold back two things - the water on one side, and the backfilled material on the other." Correct, no argument here. "Think about how much pressure there is from thousands of gallons of water on the wall. Me (230 pounds) jumping up and down on the panel can't even come close to the amount of pressure and stress that the water will be putting on the wall. What? If you really think about it, the most stressful for a pool wall is when the pool is EMPTY, not when it is full! When the pool is full, you only have crushing forces of the dirt on one side (which won't move) and the water on the opposite side. This actually acts to hold everything in place. Empty the pool and let the dirt get moist, or have some good vibrations on it. The dirt now wants to push the wall in because there is NO forces from the water...THAT is when the forces are the greatest on a pool wall. "I hesitate to think of the additional stress that gets put on the walls when someone jumps into the pool...point being, if the wall broke that easily under those simple conditions, how well will it hold up once it is installed?" Again, a salesman's approach to scaring the uninformed into believing that jumping into the water is the same as jumping directly onto a panel. Hey, if that is true, can we see a video of you diving head first into onto one of your panels? Nope...and why? There is no WATER to disperse the energy. You junping into a pool does NOT put 225lbs of stress onto a single point of a panel, but rather the displacement of the water acts to 'cusion' you by dispersing your energy over a wide (very wide) area. I might take you up on that panel offer...I would like to know if anyone out there is from Kafko and would be willing to oblige this opportunity? Boog...

If your pool has 2 separate lines back to the pump you should be able to close the valve for the broken skimmer and eliminate the problem of losing prime and sucking in dirt. Whether you can do this or not does not change the fact that you need to fix this. You will need to break up the deck around the skimmer, excavate to expose the bottom of the skimmer and the broken pipe leading to it. I am not a vinyl liner builder but in my experience most liner pool skimmers are not encased in concrete. You will need to replace the broken piece of pipe and probably the fitting on the bottom of the skimmer, use the appropriate pipe and glue,depending on what you find, do not attempt a repair with any sort of epoxy.You should be able to purchase whatever you will need, after you get it exposed, at your local pool supplier. Good luck.

I would replumb with hard pipe (PVC). I always ignored the hose that came in the pool cleaner box and used hard pipe. Less problems and the pipe and fittings are inexpensive. 5 years is fair amount of time for that hose to last.