Kreepy Krauley doesn't move with new pump

[jefitz]

Hi,

I have a 18x36 inground pool. I have a 1HP AO Smith pump on my Hayward DE filter. I moved in 2 years ago and the Kreepy Krauley vacuum has been great. The pump just went. (It was 11 years old.) I replaced it with another 1HP AO Smith pump and it is doing a fine job keeping the pool clean. The Kreepy Krauley is not working with this new pump. I can't figure out if the suction is better than the old pump or worse. The Kreepy Krauley barely moves. When I vacuum by hand, the hose curls up into 3 separate rings. The old pump didn't curl the hose as much. This makes me think the suction power of the new pump is better. I attach the vacuum to the skimmer intake. I close off the center pool drain prior to connecting the hose. When I put my hand near the skimmer intake, the suction feels powerful, but it doesn't feel as powerful as the old pump. This doesnt make sense to me because the vacuum hose seems to curl more with this new pump. When I put the Kreepy Krauley in the water, I have tried squeezing the hose to limit the amount of suction, thinking that maybe the vacuum was getting stuck to the bottom of the pool. This didn't help. I have the Kreepy Krauley regulator, but I'm not sure it is complete. It worked with the old pump, but now that I am having problems, I can't figure out how to adjust it. I may be missing half of the regulator. I am not sure if I should buy a new regulator for $40 or just go buy a more advanced vacuum. I also dont have a clue on how to determine the actual pumped GPM.

Any advice/suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Jef

 

[Bama Rambler]

Just a thought here. Does the pressure gauge read the same with the new pump as it did with the old? Assuming the filter is clean it should read the same as the old if it's pumping the same amount. I'd suspect a new pump should pump more than an 11 year old pump just because all the parts are 11 years newer.

 

[jefitz]

I'm somewhat embarassed to admit, that the pressure gauge wasn't working correctly and wasn't registering a reading with the old (or the new pump for that matter). Since water was clean and vacuum was working with old pump, I just left the broken gauge on the todo list. Since having the problem with the vacuum, I have cleaned out the DE filter and got the gauge working. It is only registering 4 PSI. If i shut the return valves for a couple of seconds it goes up to 10 PSI. there isn't any air in the system. if i close off either valve for one of the 2 intake lines it doesn't impact PSI.

 

[jefitz]

New discovery... Upon reading about other peoples pool problems, I saw one that said try putting the valve on recirc to bypass the filter. I did this and water started coming out of the waste. I spun the handle around again and was able to get the recirc working. The valve was not moving smoothly. It felt like something was grinding in there. I suspect I need to open it up and hopefully only need to put a new gasket in there. I spun it back to filter and I believe it is processing more water. I'm thinking that my suction pressure varied depending on how messed up the alignment of the spider valve (Hayward Vari-Flo) was. I'm a hack. If anyone knows whether a simple gasket change could fix this or if I need a whole new valve, please let me know.