Too much sand??

[bennieboy]

Hi, i am looking after a pool and have noticed that when i vacuum the pool, all is fine, until i turn off the pump to empty the pump basket and turn it back on, a ton of dirt goes into the pool from the return jets. This does not happen whilst vacuuming.

I opened up the sand filter and the sand is new and loose as you'd expect. When I perform a backwash though i do notice that we lose some sand??

Any ideas on what could be causing this? to recap, when i clean the pool, its all ok, until i turn off the pump for a few minutes, when it goes back on, a load of dirt re-enters the pool?

Thanks

 

[RobbieH]

That's what happened when I had a broken seals around the laterals.

 

[bennieboy]

thanks for the quick reply, however, i dont understand why dirt come back into the pool ONLY when the pump is turned back on from being off a short while?

Thanks

 

[RobbieH]

Don't know, but that's exactly what mine did. While it was running, I didn't see any sand, but turn the pump off for a while and then fire it back up and it looked like a sandstorm coming out of my returns. I'm not saying this is your issue, it's just one possible issue. Hold up until you get some more responses.

 

[bennieboy]

thanks again for the quick reply, just to note though, its not sand that is coming back into my pool, its dirty water!? It does not happen whilst i am vacuuming though, only when i first turn the pump back on.

Thanks

 

[Bama Rambler]

How is your vacuum hooked up?

It's possible that the standpipe seal in the filter is leaking a little and some of the dirty water is bypassing the media.
It could also be possible that the multiport valve is leaking internally causing the dirt to return to the pool on startup.

 

[cramar]

What size pool and what size pump?

It's possible the pump has too much horsepower and is blowing some sand thru.