Side suction vacuum with Aqua-Genie

[DJ13]

I'm having some trouble keeping my Hayward DV4000 vacuuming, it seems to work for a couple minutes and then just stops moving around. If I put some tension on the vacuum hose it does start to pulse again but stops if I let go. When I first got the vacuum a couple months ago it worked perfectly and would happily wander around the pool for hours at a time.

There does not appear to be a leak in the hose (I did have another hose that I could hear a pinhole leak) but I noticed that if I draw the hose and vacuum up out of the water there does appear to be air being drawn in right near the top where the white ring is located but I don't know if this is normal or not. I do not have the ability to balance the pressure between returns since I only have one suction point that I can use but the suction strength looked to be in the right range from the test adapter. Is there anything else I can check?

 

[jblizzle]

Sorry for the lack of response. Bump for someone with experience.

I am wondering if the suction is too high and then not letting the vac move (not sure if that is possible though).

Can you add a picture of your plumbing setup?

 

[pooladdict]

These are notorious for having issues. If you can't regulate the suction, I suggest you return it.

Get yourself a robot and you can thank me by having a drink while it cleans your pool.

 

[DJ13]

I'll take a picture later but I had the same thought and tried using just the vacuum hose into the vac plate without the rubber attachment to give a good seal and that seemed to help.

My setup is basically just one line with an Aqua Genie, pump sand filter and heater. No extra shut off valves, just an inline chlorinator that I don't use

 

[jblizzle]

So is the vac is hooked up to the skimmer with a plate? Usually they have some kind of plate that allows you to regulate the amount of suction coming through the vac and what bypasses it.

 

[DJ13]

My vacuum plate does not have any kind of regulation. I agree that the next step would be to get a robot of some kind.

 

[pooladdict]

Drinks are on DJ13::

 

[jblizzle]

Or get a plate that has regulation. Should not be too expensive to try out.