PoolCleaner hose circling and flow....

[leibin]

Hello!

I've been searching around but haven't found much on this - I just bought the 2 wheel pool cleaner, did a fantastic job over my barracuda g3 which was getting stuck on the main drains every few hours. The only thing I've noticed with the poolcleaner is that after a day or two of running, the hose from the cleaner to the return line gets all coiled up from the cleaner doing its circles everywhere which causes the cleaner to hang around one area of the pool because the effective length of the hose is much shorter. Any tips on how to keep the hose fairly straight rather than coiled up with this unit? Seems like a hose swivel or something is needed.

Also, I have to run my variable speed pump at 3000 rpm to get the cleaner even close to the minimum wheel RPM's....is this normal? The pump is a Jandy 2hp epump pro. The plumbing is 2" coming out of the ground near the pump pad, but don't know what it is from the suction port...

Thanks in advance!

 

[proavia]

Are you using an inline leaf catcher? If so, where on the hose is it located?

Where - exactly - are the hose weights located?

Are you using a dedicated suction port or connecting through your skimmer? Are you using the supplied bypass valve?

Additionally, here's a link to their troubleshooting page - in case you don't have it....
Tech Support- Automatic swimming pool cleaners -- The PoolCleaner

My daughter has the 2 wheel version. It took a little minor tweaking to get it performing optimally. But it does a great job now. Let me know the answers to the above and maybe I can make a few suggestions to get yours working a bit better.

EDIT: After re-reading your post, I see you mentioned a suction port. Is there a valve that controls the amount of suction from the port? Possibly, a picture of that valve and another of your whole equipment setup will help.

 

[JohnT]

I'd think the problem would almost have to be the swivel on top of the cleaner. It should prevent cleaner movement from twisting the hose.

 

[ping]

Check to make sure the hoses are not coiled when laid out on the deck. If the hoses will not lay straight while on the deck that could cause the cleaner to not perform as it should.

If I switch all of my suction to the dedicated suction port, my PoolCleaner will run at the optimum wheel speed while my pump runs on low-speed. You should have way more than enough suction if you are running yours at 3000 RPM. It sounds like you need to adjust the valves so the cleaner suction line draws more suction.

 

[leibin]

Thanks for the replies everyone...didn't know there was a swivel on top of the cleaner, I'm going to check that (noticed in the manual too, feel kinda dumb there LOL). The hoses were straight when I took them out of the box last week, they're brand new. As far as the suction goes, I'm guessing the pool floor drains and skimmer are on the same valve and the suction port is on it's own, but maybe that's not the case. I have to close the valve to the skimmer completely and run the pump at 3000rpm to get about 9-10rpm on the wheels, so maybe the suction port is sharing flow with the floor? I'll have to check both...thanks again everyone!

 

[proavia]

Placement of the weights on the hose closest to the cleaner and whether or not you have an inline leaf catcher play an important part on the hose circling over itself. At least it did on my daughters setup.

A picture of your valve setup or a diagram might help us in determining if you if you can route more suction to the cleaner port.