New pool owner needs help

[Guest]

Hi All,

I recently purchased a house with a pool and I'm struggling with a gurgling noise in the skimmer box and I was hoping someone here could help me.

The water comes up nearly to the top of the skimmer box. I have a kreepy krauly installed where the connector into the skimmer box goes through the weir(flapper) door and effectively keeps it open. Not sure if that should be the case, but it the only way it can go in from what I can see..

The Kreepy Krauler has always been in.. I'm not sure if we should be taking it out or not and just using it occasionally?

I have a salt chlorinator VXT7 ( I think its called ) . The pool is 50,000 litres according to the guy from the pool shop where the previous owners used to visit.

The pump and salt chlorinator seem to be working fine and the pump basket is always nearly full of water(but not completely)

What I have noticed is little whirlpools or vortexs in the skimmer box which I think are related to the gurgling noise.

Any advice is very much appreciated.

regards

Bob.

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!

The vortex in the skimmer is an indication that the skimmer opening isn't providing enough water to keep up with the pump. That results in a partially filled strainer basket at the pump and noise.

What pump do you have?

 

[Bama Rambler]

You should remove the cleaner, hose and skimmer plate when you're not using it. You should only need to use it occasionally.
The weir (and basket) is designed to help prevent the skimmer from creating a vortex and sucking in air. By keeping it inoperational, you're defeating it's purpose.

 

[Guest]

Many thanks to both of you.

The skimmer and pump basket both seems to always be about 90% full. The pump basket itself is full and the water swishes up against the dome cover when running.

The pump I have is the viron P300.

When the cleaner is attached it attaches to a cover that goes over the skimmer basket, could the Cortez's be caused due to a lack of a proper seal between the cover and the skimmer basket?

Many thanks

 

[Guest]

Hi guys a quick update. It seems putting a ball in the skimmer helped. But then I noticed that my pump has been running in turbo mode. Which according to the manual should only be in turbo mode when back washing. The pump has a cleaning mode which should still let my kreepy krauly run but it doesn't seem to generate enough suction.

So now I'm kind of lost as how to proceed, I'm thinking run it in Eco mode 12 hours a day and just put it on turbo mode when I want to use the suction cleaner? Or I could get a better cleaner that doesn't need suction?

Below is a link to my pumps manual which describes the modes.

Many thanks

http://www.astralpool.com.au/system/fil ... Pump_0.pdf

 

[Bama Rambler]

Are you removing the vacuum plate from the skimmer when not vacuuming?
If so are you still getting air in the pump basket when it's removed?
How high up on the skimmer mouth is the water level?

 

[Guest]

Hi,

The thing is we just moved into the place and we haven't ever removed the suction vacuum. I asked work colleges and they all seem to just leave them in.

I have since removed the vacuum plate and cleaner.

I don't believe I have air in the pump basket? I can see little vortexes forming in the skimmer basket, but the weir(flapper) when the vacuum isn't in there or a ball, when the vacuum is in, seems to stop that from occurring.

The water level is to the top of the weir/flapper door.

What I'm trying to determine now is

1) How long should I run the pump per day and can I just run it in eco mode, which I believe pumps 202lpm? Is there a general rule of thumb about how much water you should pump a day?
2) Trying to determine why my 'cleaning' mode doesn't have enough suction to get my kreepy krauly going, I'm thinking there might be small air leaks in the cleaners hose..

 

[Bama Rambler]

The skimmer and pump basket both seems to always be about 90% full. The pump basket itself is full and the water swishes up against the dome cover when running.

This tells me that there is air in the pump basket. The small vortex's that you're seeing is also an indication that you're getting air in the system.

As far as run time goes. Just run it enough to keep the pool clean. There is really no set run time.

If the system is leaking even a tiny bit of air in, the pump won't be able to provide enough suction to run the cleaner. Find and stop any air leaks and it'll be able to run the cleaner easily.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Bama,

So the pump basket should be 100% full when the pumps running?

 

[Bama Rambler]

Pretty close to it. A quarter sized bubble that's not moving is ok but much more than that indicates a leak.

 

[Guest]

Wow,, I figured as long as the water is to the top of the basket and remaining steady at that level there's no issue. It's not dropping further, maybe I can try fretting the air out by filling it manually?

Sorry I'm new to all of this

 

[duraleigh]

Do you have an air bleed valve at the top of your filter? If so, use it to bleed off the air from the filter and your pump strainer basket should fill to the top with water.

If you do this and then the air space returns to your pump strainer basket, then you have a suction side leak.

There is an article in Pool School on how to find and fix them.

 

[Guest]

Ok thank you I will look into it and let you know.

Thanks again

 

[Guest]

Hi All,

ok a small update. I removed the suction cleaner and put my pump into recirculate mode. This seemed to get all of the air out of the pump basket. I then ran the pump 8 hours a day, mostly on eco mode and the water in the pump basket didn't seem to drop.

Then I put the kreeply krauly(suction vacuum) back on and pretty much straight away I had those 'slurping' sounds in the skimmer basket and the water in the pump basket started to drop. So I'm thinking the suction cleaner is the issue? I think I can here an air leak in the hose closer to the skimmer basket end..

Do you guys recommend a certain brand of suction cleaner? or another type all together? I'm thinking of replacing it.

 

[duraleigh]

If the hose is leaking, why not replace the hose?

 

[Guest]

We'll the aerial kreepy krauly has had a part fall off and it doesn't look fixable, so I was going to replace it all at once.