We have a strainer in front of our Hayward pump. The skimmer feeds the strainer. Normally I get a strong flow through the pump, and normally the strainer is full to the top with water.
But in order to attach the pool vacuum hose to the skimmer I have to lift the flapper on the skimmer. Just lifting the skimmer flap introduces a great deal of air into the strainer unit and the pumping power of the filter drops significantly. When this happens the vacuum hose won't stay attached because there's almost no flow to hold it down. So I hold the vacuum connector in place over the strainer bucket by hand while my wife tries to clean the pool, each of us yelling at the other one that there's no vacuum. There's still some water flowing through the strainer and into the pump, so it's doing something. Eventually we give up. If we remove the vacuum attachment and wait a few minutes the pump returns to normal. Oh, and we always fill the vacuum hose with water before trying to attach it to the skimmer.
This doesn't seem right, but it also just seems like this is how works. Is there an easier way?
But in order to attach the pool vacuum hose to the skimmer I have to lift the flapper on the skimmer. Just lifting the skimmer flap introduces a great deal of air into the strainer unit and the pumping power of the filter drops significantly. When this happens the vacuum hose won't stay attached because there's almost no flow to hold it down. So I hold the vacuum connector in place over the strainer bucket by hand while my wife tries to clean the pool, each of us yelling at the other one that there's no vacuum. There's still some water flowing through the strainer and into the pump, so it's doing something. Eventually we give up. If we remove the vacuum attachment and wait a few minutes the pump returns to normal. Oh, and we always fill the vacuum hose with water before trying to attach it to the skimmer.
This doesn't seem right, but it also just seems like this is how works. Is there an easier way?
