Dumb question about using a vacuum plate

[MikeInTN]

Up to today, I've never used a vacuum plate when vacuuming the bottom of our pool; our pb instructed us to burp our vacuum hose, remove the skimmer basket from the skimmer, and plug the hose directly into the outlet of the skimmer. Today, I decided to try to use the vacuum plate so I could keep my skimmer basket and it's sock in place to catch all the Crud before it went to the pump and filter. Unfortunately, I could never get the hose hooked to the plate without the pump losing it's prime and sucking air. So, hence my dumb question. How do you hook up your vacuum hose to the vacuum plate and then get it in position in the skimmer well without your pump sucking air and losing prime?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Mike

 

[Guest]

put the vacuum plate in the skimmer first, burp the hose, and attach it to the vacuum plate. Really no different than plugging the hose right into the skimmer.

 

[NWMNMom]

Another thing I found is that: you burp the hose but when you move it to the skimmer it often ends up out of the water and gets some air. Here is how I fixed that - I burp the hose and pull it over to the skimmer area under water THEN I hold it facing DOWN so water starts pouring out of the hose until I get it on the vac plate - there is just that tendancy to hold the hose facing up and it just naturally takes air that way.

 

[MikeInTN]

put the vacuum plate in the skimmer first, burp the hose, and attach it to the vacuum plate. Really no different than plugging the hose right into the skimmer.

Evidently my water level's too low. The vacuum plate also sucks air by itself when I put it over the skimmer basket. I'll raise the water level and try it again.

 

[MarkC]

An easy way to get the water out of the hose is to attach the hose to your skimmer plate like normal but then put the free end of the vac. hose over your return. THe water will fill the hose almost completely so that you don't loose prime.

 

[NWMNMom]

Yep, thats whats considered burping the hose. But it looks like Mike's vac plate is causing the pump to cavitate and needs to bring his water level up so the water is over the top of the vac plate hose adapter OR the vac plate has a really high/long adapter that sticks up further than most? If the above is the case, that would be where its sucking all the air,

BUT, until water level is up, you can also 1) burp the hose and attach the hose to the vac plate BEFORE attaching the vac plate to the skimmer - try that. Make sure you don't tilt it up to get air inside, keep it tilted downard so water comes out of the hose/plate and be quick, so no air gets in there. May take a bit of finess and quick eye/hand coordination. Let us know!

 

[matt4x4]

vac plate

Ok, if your skimmer is working, but something sucks air when the plate is on, it's because the seal between the hose and plate isn't tight enough, the plate should seal fine even with the lowest working water level.
Here's how I do mine, I burp the air out of the hose with the vac plate attached already, keep the pump running, place the vac plate in the hole and it should just suck tight, the water should surround the seal area and seal it off.
I even run mine with the water level inches below the skimmer in spring before the rains fill my pool by letting the hose dangle in the skimmer keeping a continuous trickle of water on top of the plate allowing it to seal.
Usually when I run it, I pop the weir out - allows water into the skimmer much easier.