Pump is running dry when trying to vacuum

Jump to latest Follow Reply
H

hueby

0
Jun 11, 2013
5
Bethalto, IL
Hello all, new to pools and the board here.

I am having a issue when I go to vacuum my 15x30 AG pool. It has a new Hayward EC40 and 1 hp Matrix pump setup. After hooking up the manual vac head to a pole, pushing the air out of the submerged hose with the discharge jet, and then hooking it up to the vac plate in the skimmer the pump is filled over half way with air within 5 seconds or so and the pump is gasping for water (which I turn off immediately afterwards).

I've done some searching on here and it sounds like most people have holes or air leaks either in their hose or elsewhere.... it seems like it would have to be a huge air leak for the problem I'm having? When the pump is running through the skimmer without the vacuum there is some air in the pump for a while and then fills up after running so long.

Tonight I'll inspect everything I can again and go from there... any other tips or areas to look at please let me know. Maybe the vac plate isn't sealing good, a hose end is loose, etc. ?
 
I have not used an adapter plate with my AG pool, I use an adapter cone that came with my Aquabug. I know when I fill my vacuum hose, I need to get all of the air out of the hose before vacuuming, either with the bug or a manual vac head.

What I normally do is fill the hose with water, start the pump and wait for the bubble to go away in the pump strainer body, fill the last bit of the v-hose with water and then quickly plug it into the skimmer body. I normally get some air but it goes away quickly.
 
How high is your water? You may not have it high enough and there is are getting in due to that. I also do not use the plate. I found it did not really work for me. I just push the hose end into the skimmer hole. That works great for me.

Good luck!
 
This is what the end of my hose looks like with the adapter on it

IMG_5316.JPG


This is what it looks like plugged in

IMG_5291.JPG


This photo was taken during a repair. The pool's water level is low in this shot (the skimmer is full of white crepe mrytle blooms)
 
I always run the hose through the weir opening to connect to the bottom instead of over the wall. The more hose you can keep underwater the less air you will suck in. This may help you, but it may not be enough to solve your problem. Are there ANY bubbles coming out your returns when you are NOT vacuuming? If there are, this would indicate you have a full-time suction leak NOT associated with the vacuum itself. It sounds like you do, based on the air in the pump without the vacuum. This might allow you to filter ok, but cause a fail when trying to vacuum. Check the big o-ring on the pump trap cover and the little one(s) on the pump drain(s). Also look closely at any valves on the suction side between skimmer and pump. They can leak air, too. Look for any little spurt of water on the suction side when you kill the power. Thar be an air leak...
 
Mine did that. I learned that you need to put the hose in front of the tube that puts the water back into the pool so it pushes water through the hose. When the bubbles stop coming out of the vacuum, the hose is purged of air, then you connect the hose to the intake thing.
 
Sounds like you're not getting the tube completely full with water. Try putting the vacuum in and then slowly feeding the tube into the water vertically, so you are pushing the tube down vertically allowing water to fill the tube. When you go to plug the other end into the skimmer you should see the tube is completely full of water.
 
Thanks for all the replies and info so far. The water level is 3/4 the way up the skimmer opening. I can not see any bubbles coming out of the return port. I'm guessing I do have a full time suction air leak (and it's not just vac related) .... so last night I took the O ring off the pump trap cover and cleaned/lubed it as well as flushing/re-charging the DE filter. It didn't seam to make a difference and then I ran out of daylight. When the pump is running there is a air pocket the full size/diameter of the pump trap cover and there is a lot of "water turbulence" you can visually see in there.

Next I'll check the piping from the skimmer to the pump. I do have a center drain that Y's into the piping from the skimmer. I thought I could shut the valve on the skimmer piping and just open the center drain piping valve and see if that makes any difference. Then I'll know for sure it's from the skimmer area...
 
This could be a stupid question, but I found this out the hard way. Does your vacuum hose have one end with a swiveling adapter and one end that does not swivel? My hose has a swiveling end designed to be attached to the vacuum head (and allow the vacuum head to pivot around.) The other end does not swivel and that attaches to the skimmer. If I reverse those ends, air gets sucked into my vacuum hose and eventually the pump starts sucking only air and no water. It seems that the swiveling end isn't an air tight fit. (I hope that makes sense)
 
hueby said:
Hello all, new to pools and the board here.

I am having a issue when I go to vacuum my 15x30 AG pool. It has a new Hayward EC40 and 1 hp Matrix pump setup. After hooking up the manual vac head to a pole, pushing the air out of the submerged hose with the discharge jet, and then hooking it up to the vac plate in the skimmer the pump is filled over half way with air within 5 seconds or so and the pump is gasping for water (which I turn off immediately afterwards).

I've done some searching on here and it sounds like most people have holes or air leaks either in their hose or elsewhere.... it seems like it would have to be a huge air leak for the problem I'm having? When the pump is running through the skimmer without the vacuum there is some air in the pump for a while and then fills up after running so long.

Tonight I'll inspect everything I can again and go from there... any other tips or areas to look at please let me know. Maybe the vac plate isn't sealing good, a hose end is loose, etc. ?
Click to expand...

Make sure you connect the correct end of the hose. Do not connect the swivel end of the hose into the skimmer, it will suck in air.

I learned that the hard way, bought a new hose, it did the same thing. I found out I was connecting the swivel end into the skimmer instead of the vacuum.

Doh!
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
brownish/green colored water discharge when turning pump on

Hello all,

I currently am experiencing about 5 seconds of brownish/green colored water discharged from the outlet into the pool when turning the pump/filter setup on. After the initial start up it clears up. This has been going on for a few weeks now, so I'll change out the DE with fresh and the problem continues. (I also just chemically cleaned the filter tubes thinking that would help) The pool remains very clear though with the pump running 4 hours per day in the morning. What do I need to check and look for first?
 
I found the problem of the pump running dry resulting from a air leak in the connection tube from the vac plate and vac hose. I removed the fitting and now stick the vac hose directly down in the vac plate which keeps everything under water as well. The problem is fixed. THANK YOU ALL.

I am now dealing with the brownish/green water discharge issue posted above.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply