Pollen, skimmer, and suction valve

[mfabel]

I am starting my first season in a new house with my first pool. Since I moved in I have installed a variable speed pump, removed the pucks from the old chlorinator, and installed a liquidator. Lots to learn! I am having issues with pollen on the water surface. The skimmer doesn't seem to do a very good job of removing it. When the installer set up the new pump with my Aqualink Onetouch system, he set it to run at a high speed (2450 rpm) for two hours for the pool vac, and then for six more hours at a lower speed (1500 rpm) to filter. The solar is enabled during those six hours. The vac stays in the pool all the time.

I am thinking that the skimmer is not working well because too much of the suction is coming through the pool vac and not enough through the skimmer. The suction valve is manual and is set maybe 3/4 toward the cleaner suction side (and away from the pool suction side). I can see pieces of pollen float by the skimmer unless they are within about 4 inches. As a test I pulled the vacuum hose out at the wall and closed the flap that blocks the port. With all the suction coming through the skimmer I can see much more flow, and pollen about a foot away gets pulled in.

I am thinking that maybe I should put a valve actuator on the suction valve. I could set it up do nearly all the flow goes through the vacuum for the first two hours on high speed, and then switch all the suction to the pool side the rest of the time. I see my Aqualink has a Cleaner mode, and I suspect it is for something like what I want to do. Does all this sound reasonable? I think my Aqualink is the RS8 model, and it has the iAqualink attached. Is it straight forward to connect a new valve actuator and program the controller to know it us a cleaner valve? Do you think this will help the skimmer work better? I am thinking it might also allow me to reduce the pump speed in cleaner mode and get the same flow through the vac, saving on the electric bill.

 

[jblizzle]

Just want to confirm that you have a weir on your skimmer as that make it work much better. But, you are correct if most of the flow is required through the Vac, then the skimmer may not work very well.

Sounds like you have a good plan (I am considering the same) to actuate the cleaner valve and then you can split the run times.

 

[mfabel]

Yes, I have a weir. In fact, when the installer put the new pump in, he said my weir wasn't very good do he replaced it with one that he said was better because it was thicker. Not sure if thicker really us better, but it us brand new.

 

[mfabel]

I have been looking at the AquaLink installation manual, and it looks like there is a Cleaner JVA connection at the power center. I think all I need to do is connect a new JVA to that connection, flip the S1-1 dip switch to ON, and then any time I activate Cleaner mode the pump should run at the Cleaner speed and the valve should go to the cleaner position (suction from vac). If the cleaner is off, the valve should direct suction to the other position (skimmer / main drains). Do I have this correct?

Also, I read somewhere that it is a good idea to not close off the skimmer suction completely. That way, if the vacuum hose gets removed or accidentally knocked out, and the flap blocks the suction port, the pump can suck water from the skimmer and not run dry. That makes sense to me. I don't think there should be any similar concern with the skimmer, unless the water level gets too low. In that case I think the diverter in the bottom of the skimmer will allow water to be sucked from the main drains, so I probably should have that set so at least some suction comes from the main drains and not all from the skimmer. Sound right?