I just got back from vacation last night. I had a guy that was supposed to be adding bleach to my pool and emptying the skimmers, and well, he didn't. I'd also mentioned to my neighbor (different guy) that if he gets a chance he might swing by and pull leaves since they're coming down so aggressively right now. He DID come empty skimmers occasionally, but didn't add bleach since I didn't ask him to do that. Long story short, my pool is full of leaves, the water is somewhat green, we got a ton of rain while I was gone, and my water flow has gone down noticeably.
I can fix all but the last one (in normal circumstances with normal flow I suppose). I have a variable speed pump (Viron is the manufacturer), and the max speed is 3075 rpm. When I run it full blast after a fresh backwash, it normally reads a few psi at the filter (2-4 psi). Right now, it reads 0 after a fresh backwash, and there is a lot less flow coming out of the jets. This doesn't seem to change whether or not I use my shallow skimmer, deep skimmer, or main drain (those are my only 3 options). Also, the pump skimmer is normally primed and full of water shortly after turning it on, but I noticed last night it was taking a long time for the air to clear out, and some of it never did. The swirling water is very sluggish in that skimmer as well, and the swirling water in the sight glass during a backwash is much less as well. I've been having to add a little bit of DE to help with catching the very small pollen that I could see coming back into my pool from all the leaves, and that made the pressure go up a few psi after it ran for a while, but the flow was again very low. Normally I'll let my filter pressure read 15 psi before I backwash because I still have decent flow. Last night, at 10 psi the flow was down to a trickle so I backwashed. After backwashing, pressure went back to 0, and flow came back up SOME but not to its normal level--just back to where it was last night when it read 0 before.
You think this is a blockage somewhere or something more sinister?
Any help is appreciated!
I can fix all but the last one (in normal circumstances with normal flow I suppose). I have a variable speed pump (Viron is the manufacturer), and the max speed is 3075 rpm. When I run it full blast after a fresh backwash, it normally reads a few psi at the filter (2-4 psi). Right now, it reads 0 after a fresh backwash, and there is a lot less flow coming out of the jets. This doesn't seem to change whether or not I use my shallow skimmer, deep skimmer, or main drain (those are my only 3 options). Also, the pump skimmer is normally primed and full of water shortly after turning it on, but I noticed last night it was taking a long time for the air to clear out, and some of it never did. The swirling water is very sluggish in that skimmer as well, and the swirling water in the sight glass during a backwash is much less as well. I've been having to add a little bit of DE to help with catching the very small pollen that I could see coming back into my pool from all the leaves, and that made the pressure go up a few psi after it ran for a while, but the flow was again very low. Normally I'll let my filter pressure read 15 psi before I backwash because I still have decent flow. Last night, at 10 psi the flow was down to a trickle so I backwashed. After backwashing, pressure went back to 0, and flow came back up SOME but not to its normal level--just back to where it was last night when it read 0 before.
You think this is a blockage somewhere or something more sinister?
Any help is appreciated!
