Rocks in PVC lines

[jessie00721]

Hello, I have been messing around with my pool lines and have finally figured out I have large rocks in the lines. I just had the pool redone this past fall and everything pressure tested fine but when running the skimmer it would lack pressure and would appear to suck alot of air and lose water in the pump catch. I could not run full skimmer, I would have to run 50% bottom and 50% skimmer. I could vac. with that but it was not real impressive on performance. Upon further checking I noticed today that there is something which I assume is rocks in both the main drain and skimmer lines. When switching the directional control valve at the pump real fast I hear the rocks trying to move up and down the pvc pipes. I dug down to the first 90 degree fitting which is about 4' down. I am trying to avoid replacing the lines there cause I got to drain some water from the pool to work on it then. I did cut free the lines from the pump but so far I have been unsuccessful at creating the pressure needed to blow the rocks out. Is there any special ideas I could do? I was considering hooking up a hose between my cut pvc lines and the filter and seeing if I could not get the rocks up into the hose. Other then that I would need a much larger pump in order to bring the rocks up a 4' 90 degree pipe. Any ideas would be helpful. Will start messing with it again first thing tomorrow morning again.

Thanks,
Jessie

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

You can get some pressure in the line with a drain king and a garden hose. I don't know if that will be enough, but it can run pressure backwards through the line and do other tricks that would be difficult to do with the pump.

 

[JohnT]

Not knowing the layout of your lines, here's what I might try. Do this at your own risk, so if the rag gets stuck you can't blame me.


Get enough light string/heavy thread to go the length of your line. Attach a small piece of foam or something similar to one end. Use a hose to to flush the foam through the line. If it works, you have a string running the length of the line. Tie the end of a stouter piece of twine to the thread, and pull it back through. Make sure this stouter twine is at least twice the length of the pipe. Tie a rag in the middle of this twine at the end of the pipe furthest from the rocks so it can be pulled from either end. Make the rag just big enough to pull through the pipe and fittings. Pull the rag through the pipe, and hopefully it will bring the rocks with it. If it gets stuck, having the extra string will let you pull it back. Better to have the rag too small to start with, and make it a little bigger for subsequent attempts.

 

[jessie00721]

Hey, I have tried the string already. I can get the string to pass the blockage but it is very hard to move just he string in the pipe once it passes the block. Takes a lot of force to free it. I guess the rock is turned sideways and is lodge in the pipe good and right. Not really sure what to do at the moment. I did notice that the block is a little further back in the line then I first expected so digging to it would be pretty hard, it would fall under my concrete deck somewhere.