Opening advice

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UPDATE!!! :queen:

Because I finally discovered TFP last season and all that I have learned in PoolSchool and all the help from the forum.... I just had the sweetest pool opening EVER!!!
In a mere 5 days and a dozen gallons of bleach... SLAM complete!!! I cut 30 days and 100 gallons of bleach off last year"s opening (my first time)!! So, I add in my salt & begin bringing CYA up to target. All that's left to do is dial in my SWG :whip: This teacher is sooo thrilled to actually spend her summertime off in her beautiful Trouble Free Pool :sunny::paddle::lovetfp::party:







So, I'm floating around thinking that life can't get any better & I noticed a couple of specks of something on the bottom:grrrr: Yes, I'm becoming OCD about my pool! So, I get out & hook up the vac & go to town. I vac to waste, then backwash to clear in the spy glass, then rinse to clear & turn the filter back on ready to dive back into my PERFECT pool, but horror of all horrors!!! sand & all kinds of **** is shooting out from the returns back into my pool!!!

So, I go back to TFP and read up to make sure I am vacuuming correctly and fill the pool back up (I used a lot of water vacuuming, backwashing & rinsing) and start over. I vacuumed to waste until it was clean again, opened the pump basket to clean it & it had quite a bit of sand in the bottom!! (I've never seen that before) cleaned it out, backwashed & rinsed again twice, just to make sure, turned it back to filter & stuff came out again!!! Ugggggh! Also, the pump basket while running has a lot of air bubbles churning in it, the top of the sand filter (around the connection between the multiport valve & top of sand filter) is leaking water & the pump pressure is is up to 24psi & is normally 15psi! I tried more backwashing but the pressure stays high!

Okay, so I'm thinking it's the fitting under the multiport valve that's leaking & hopefully I need a gasket or something and I don't have a major problem. All help is always welcome :p HELP!! Thanks :lovetfp:
 
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I have been doing a lot more reading here since I posted last & now believe that what I need to do is check the o-ring under the multiport valve to see if it needs replacing and deep clean the sand. We replaced the sand 2 seasons ago but have not done a deep clean ever :( I found "Smykowski's" thread about the anatomy of the sand filter & how to deep clean it :p Great!! What I need to know is, is it safe to run the with the pressure 10psi above normal or should I turn it off until I get the rest done? I have to wait for help from my son this weekend.
 
As long as there is water flow, then it is safe to run the pump ... even if the pressure is higher than expected.

Are you sure there is no return valve that got partially closed resulting in the higher pressure?
 


Are these the return valves you are asking about? I never touch these. My son tried to fool with them last year and they are basically stuck as is! You can see he broke one off trying... also put a pretty good gash on his wrist! The one on the left is apparently for 2 jets on the stairs, but is closed. The one on the right is for the other 3 jets.... 2 on the opposite wall from skimmer & 1 next to the skimmer that I used to use for the Polaris, but it's dead, so it is just a return now, although it is attached to the booster pump. I'm not using the booster pump because when I turned it on this year it seemed very loud & making a grinding noise.

Do you think that I should be checking the o-ring & deep cleaning the sand filter?
 
That is pretty odd to have those 2 large pipes and multiple return jets hooked up to a booster pump.

Do you have other returns as well? Add a full picture of your setup.

Certainly checking out and cleaning the multi-port and sand filter would not hurt anything.
 
Ok, so you do have a normal return with the SWG.
Usually a booster pump like that would only be hooked up to a single port for a cleaner.

You could tie one or both of those "boosted" lines into your main pump return and put better valves on them to allow you to control the flow.

Final note, does not look like a full 1 foot of straight pipe in front of your SWG flow switch as called for by the manual. If you are not having issues, then no big deal, bit if you get No Flow warnings for no apparent reason, could be that placement.
 

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Here is a pic of how much sand & stuff is being spit back into the pool from just one of the return jets. My son is coming on Saturday to help me deep clean the sand filter.... I pray that fixes the problem!!!






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