Please help. Pool not doing well since going to salt water

[skewzme]

I have an 18 x 33 above ground pool. 52" tall, and about 16,500 gallons.
A couple seasons ago we switched to an Intex salt water system. It's a .95 horsepower pump, model 20110 I believe.
Although I was told this Intex system was powerful enough for my pool, I am not so sure. For example, I have a Pentair Kreepy Crawler Lil Shark automatic pool cleaner. With my old pump, that think would run all over the pool floor and did a great job. With the Intex pump, it barely moves at all, and very often the pump's water resivoir runs dry when I attach the hose to the intake. Also, the pool just doesn't seem to stay as clean overall. I hear salt water systems are great, so the only conclusion I can come to is maybe I need a larger pump system. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[duraleigh]

Re: Please help. Pool not doing well since going to salt wat

Welcome to the forum. Since you are getting air in the pump basket, you have a suction side air leak and that is hurting the efficiency of your pump and causing your cleaner to run too slow.

If you only get air in the pump basket when you hook up the cleaner, you can suspect the cleaner hose as the culprit most always.

 

[skewzme]

Re: Please help. Pool not doing well since going to salt wat

Thanks for the fast reply but I'm not sure I understand.
You said the hose is likely the culprit, meaning what? It's got a hole or vaccuum leak?

 

[duraleigh]

Re: Please help. Pool not doing well since going to salt wat

meaning what? It's got a hole or vaccuum leak?

Yes. If your system doesn't suck air without the hose and you hook up the hose and it does suck air, the air is normally coming from a poor connection or hole somewhere in the hose.