Barracuda G3 Pool Cleaner

[angfiggy]

I'm a new pool owner. This is my first season. I have just finished my SLAM and passed the OCLT last night. Yay! My water is so clear. It looks magical.

Anyway, I also purchased a Barracuda G3 (Zodiac). I have two skimmers, so I have been playing around with some of the settings, how long the hose can be and the weight. Sometimes it works really well...and sometimes it doesn't. I have a Sta-Rite pump as noted on bottom and I run it on 4 when I vacuum. Any advice on fine tuning?

 

[kimkats]

Have you looked as what you do different when it works great and when it does not work as well? Tell us how you are setting it up and we can go from there.

 

[angfiggy]

Hi there. I can't tell what I am doing different when it works well. I can't get vacuum to waste to work at all and so do vacuum at speed 4 with just filter and then backwash. I really think that it just doesn't want to pick up the sandy type of sediment that is on the bottom of the pool. I don't think it's sand. It looks too fine, but it has a sandy texture. So, I basically wash out all the hoses, wash out the vacuum head and then plug it into the closest skimmer and try to vacuum. If it doesn't work, I backwash and then try again. If it still doesn't work then I shake the hose. Sometimes this seems to start the vacuum process? If this doesn't work, then I try to change the settings on the vacuum from 2 to 3 or 3 to 1. Somewhere in this process I can usually get it to start vacuuming for around 20 minutes and then it loses suction again, so I start the whole process all over again...wash the hoses, wash the vacuum head, backwash....it's a pretty frustrating process.

 

[kimkats]

When you say "wash the hose" what do you mean?

 

[moonie]

You need to use the tool that comes with it to adjust the suction, adjust the suction on the host using this tool until the indicator is at #2. This is the optimal suction for the cleaner. We have a single speed Hayward super pump with valves on the main drain and each of our two skimmers. I have to close off the skimmer that isn't being used for the Barracuda G3 and have the drain just barely cracked open to get the pressure required to make Mrs. Barry(wife named it) to start seizuring. Keep an eye on the pressure in your filter, ours goes up quite quickly if the bottom is very dirty and Mrs. Barry stops working until I backwash.

 

[angfiggy]

Wash the hose = unhook vacuum from skimmer; take Barracuda out of pool; remove hose and take hose over to faucet and physically rinse it out

@moonie - Ah, ok. I will try this. I don't know if I can completely close off the other skimmer, but I can close the door and reduce the suction. When I test it with the meter that came with the vacuum, I can never get the required suction. I will try this method. Lol on the name! I named mine Barry, too, but the kids want to rename it.