Pump not priming after vacuuming

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phlight

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Bronze Supporter
Jun 18, 2013
14
NJ
I'm afraid I've done some damage. Warning beginner learning the ropes and terminology.

I have two skimmers one in the deep and one in the shallow end which each have valve shutoffs.

I went to vacuum the pool by hooking up the vacuum hose to the skimmer inlet and running the telescoping pole along with a simple weighted vacuum head. This was while shutting off the deep end skimmer and just sucking with the shallow end skimmer. I had great suction at first and then I noticed I wasn't collecting anything more. I found that I clogged the skimmer line. I shut the shallow line and let the pool just run with the deep end skimmer and all was well (aside from the clogged shallow end). I went out the next day and heard the pump running noisily and found I had no pressure. I turned off the pump and attempted to clear the clog with my shop vac. With the deep end shut off I can see that some water is making it to the pump put not enough to pressurize the filter. Having both the shallow and the deep end does the same. It seems to start filling up but then drops a bit and is never able to fill up the pump.

What have I done to my poor pool?

I haven't had the pump run for a few days as a result. Should I be dumping in bleach to prevent the pool from growing algae? The pool is already a green mess with loads of debris at the bottom. Sandy put a hole in the cover and let a nice amount of leaves and sticks in. I'm also looking to get an automatic cleaner but I'll probably start a new thread for that after further research.

Thanks in advance,
Guy in pool heck
 
Use a hose or a drain king and try to force water from the pump backward through each of the skimmers. You should also check for a suction side air leak. You could have opened one up when the line started clogging.
 
I have a few newbie suggestions - first, if you are vacuuming leaves and debris, use a vac canister on your hose before it gets to the skimmer to prevent clogs. This is the one that came with our house/pool and we use it whenever we manually vacuum. http://www.poolproducts4less.com/haywar ... QgodHmMA4w

Second, have you tried pouring water into the pump to help it prime? We have a bucket that we fill with water and pour in the pump to give it a hand priming - fill with water then put the lid back on.

Sounds like maybe your original shallow end clog has moved further along the pipe and is now affecting both deep and shallow lines? Maybe getting the pump to prime will pull the clogged debris into the pump basket and you can clean it out? Then you can use a leaf canister on your vac line when you vac the rest of the debris to waste. (Use the vac to waste setting on your sand filter. Make sure you stop the pump before changing the setting on your valve on the sand filter).

If your pool is already green, you have algae. You need to improve circulation to properly distribute the bleach, so if you can't do that, I wouldn't waste the money on the bleach for the pool just yet. You can use other types of pumps to circulate bleach in a pool that doesn't have regular operational pumps - I've heard of people using fountain pumps, cover pumps, etc., to help.

Other users report success with clearing clogs with a Drain King, a garden hose attachment that uses water pressure to clear clogs. If your shop vac didn't work, I don't know that a Drain King would, either. We thought our main drain was clogged with leaves because our drain cover got knocked off by the robot this winter, so we bought a Drain King at Ace Hardware locally for less than $20, but we got nowhere with it after much struggle. We finally called in a professional and he informed us our main drain had been capped sometime in our pool's 40 year history, so there wasn't ever a clog (or a need for a drain cover, actually). Doh!
 
The clog buster seems to have been a bust. It would seem unlikely to me that both lines would have gotten clogged. They don't share a common line until a foot away from the pump. That seems clear. The pump has moments where it seems like it is going to pull in enough water to prime but then suddenly looses the force of the incoming water.

I disconnected the pump, emptied it and reconnected it. The pump has been filled with water.
 
The clog buster seems to have been a bust. It would seem unlikely to me that both lines would have gotten clogged. They don't share a common line until a foot away from the pump. That seems clear. The pump has moments where it seems like it is going to pull in enough water to prime but then suddenly looses the force of the incoming water.

I disconnected the pump, emptied it and reconnected it. The pump has been filled with water.
 
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