variable speed problems

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wet_labrador

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May 12, 2016
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new jersey
so in the beginning of the season y'all helped me get my variable speed pump situated.

*i disabled the main drains, drawing strictly from the skimmers.
*i have a high speed setting that runs for 2 hours, strongly generating a circular flow of water around the perimeter of the pool
*i have one low speed setting strictly for generating chlorine via salt water generator, that runs slow as possible, yet fast enough not to run the pump dry.

the pump has run dry on three occasions, i was there for both of them miraculously.
1) when the pool people serviced the pool, they somehow closed a weir valve in the skimmer, halving the water flow into the pump.
2) when that same weir valve mysteriously shut itself again from yesterday to today.
3) when the junky vacuum hose they provided me fell off of the vacuum head. i had to jump into the pool with my clothes on to keep it submerged. (it was a 60' sprint to the pump).

my concerns are as follows:

1) why is that weir valve shutting itself? i put a washer between the screw that attaches the weir valve to the skimmer unit so that i can thread the screw down tight enough to keep the valve in place. i don't know the composition of the washer, so i'm going to wait for y'all to tell me what type of metal is safe, i'll go buy that type of washer, and replace them.
2) i can't get good low speed flow to the pump with the main drains open; it seems that the pump can't draw any water when it has to fight gravity. this is a concern because when the water level get too low (and we're talking an inch between too low and too high) the pump sucks air in with the water when pulling solely from the skimmers. and it seems to draw from the skimmers much more so than the main drains to the point where if water level is on the low side, i can't use the skimmers for suction whatsoever.

what do i do to prevent this? and if it can't be prevented, how do i atleast make sure the pump doresn't run dry? i'm worried it's going to happen when i'm not there to deal with it.
 
Ok I will give it a shot.

1> Why are you running on high speed for 2 hrs? To run the polaris? You could just run the Polaris at mid speed for 1 hr to clean pool and then longer at low speed to run the rest.

2> Are you able to run main drain 1/4 open or less as a backup to keep pump from running dry? This will also take some of the strong suction off the skimmer. Are you able to remove the weir valve ( I assume it is the plate in bottom of skimmer) and run without it.
 
Weir valve? Or do mean the weir swinging door in the front of the skimmer or do you mean the float valve at the bottom of the float.

If the weir door is getting stuck, then something is interfering with it. Check the edges of the door and make sure the latches are in the correct spots.

If it is the float valve, just remove it. Not necessary anyway.
 
okay, yeah, i meant float valves. i can remove them, that's fine, but when i want to manually vacuum then i just put a plate down? obviously, the closer of the skimmers will have better suction than the further one, without the float valves to adjust for that, right? i'm guessing the difference is nominal to where they're pointless...

i'll experiment tomorrow with keeping a small fractional portion of the mains open such that the pump doesn't run dry at very low speed. but in the past, when the water was only 2 inches above the bottom of skimmer, with the mains 50% and the skimmers 50% the pump still drew predominantly from the skimmers whereby it drew tons of air into the pump. so unless there is a large problem at hand, i'm not sure what leaving the mains 20% active suction buys me.

thanks for the quick responses everyone.
 
If working properly the float valve should never allow air into the system with low water levels so it doesn't seem to be working properly. You might try lubing the o-ring that is on the bottom of the floating part of the valve. The entire float float assembly should also seal onto a lip at the bottom of the skimmer. That too can be lubed for a better seal.

Also, the cover for the float valve hole should be tight and not easy to move. There is a screw that can be tightened if it is not stripped. But that too can be fixed.
 
Yes, that is just a port cover. But I believe that is the port that goes to the pump so you don't want to cover that port unless you are vacuuming in the other skimmer. But even then you shouldn't have to cover that much.

But it may be that the water level is too low for the skimmers and that is why the they are sucking air. But given you have a VS pump, that shouldn't be an issue either because you can control how much flow you have coming from the skimmers. So it could be you just need to make some adjustments.
 
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