Diverter for The Pool Cleaner?

[umpalumpajay]

Been reading some stuff about vacuums and someone mentioned a diverter was possibly slowing their cleaner down because of the settings. Okay, I plugged mine right into the vacuum line, just hose into vac line hole - then turn a handle on a valve to make it take the pressure away from the skimmers and into the vac line. No diverter (not even sure what it was for). The wheels turn the right speed and the thing kicks butt. It gets air in the hoses when i take it out and put it back in (when we have a lot of swimmers). So 2 questions,
1. Does my setup sound right? I was thinking of having the builder change out my manual valve to an electric one so i could control it remotely.
2. Is it okay for the pump to be sucking air out of the vac hose - it seems like a lot of air! then of course after a minute the thing fills up with water from the pool.

thanks as always!
jjg

 

[jblizzle]

1. Sounds like my setup. You just have to add an actuator to your existing valve if you want the cleaner to be turned on/off by an automation system.
2. Not ideal. You usually want to try to hold the hose over a return jet to push all the air out and then plug it into the vac port.

BTW, if you are not using a skimmer plate, you should add an inline leaf canister in the hose to catch debris and avoid clogging the pump basket.

 

[umpalumpajay]

oh, yeah, i forgot to mention i added a leaf canister one hose length down from the vac hole - that was a definite after i used the vac for one day - that thing works great! you can really only get out so much air from those hoses, you know what i mean!?!? thanks for the feedback. good idea to use the return jet, i'll do that next time.

 

[jblizzle]

I just got this cleaner and have no gotten it dialed in yet. I notice some air getting in, I think through the leaf canister I got (Zodiak Cyclone) just does not seem like the top seals very well. I may move it closer to the wall and see if that holds it under water a bit ... problem is the vac port is in front of the waterfall and I will not be able to reach the leaf canister without getting into the water. Fine for now, not so much in winter though

 

[umpalumpajay]

the manual for my cleaner said to put the canister near the cleaner, but i've noticed on this site that most people have the canister close to the wall so i did it that way and it works just fine. guess it depends where your line is though - might be easier to put it near the vacuum itself since you can just take your brush and grab the whole unit out of the water and separate the canister from there. i like not having to drag the whole thing out of the water though, but my line is in a more convenient spot from the sound of things.