How to vacuum to waste

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PoolhandJeff

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May 2, 2016
7
Downingtown PA
http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/31798-How-do-i-get-all-of-this-GUNK-out-of-the-bottom-of-my-pool

The above thread is my exact situation except thata heavy rain seem to have washed yuck into pool. On top of that I spoilled the leaves on the cover on and have semeing removed all of them, that I cna see and none come up. There is brown silt/grit everywhere and it clogs up my Jandy DE. Can I vacuum to waste as if I were back washing? Ive filled the pool with mroe water in anticpation of vacvuuming out a lot of it.
 
Answered my own question. As mentioned pool has silt grit and leaves etc as as well as an algae bloom. Used leaf skimmer to haul out debris. Clogged filter twice and got tired of taking it apart. Added I gallon of muriatic acid per the chart after testing and shocked with 4 bags of HTH. Nothing. Bought algaecide and used 1/2 of a half gallon bottle. At 24 hours pool was visibly clearer all though dull and grey, I could see almost the whole bottom. I had been successful with getting out the debris but layer of silt remained. Vacuumed using skimmer port with multi-port in backwash position. Emptied the pump basket twice, brushed sides and then will let it settle and repeat. I also filled pool to coping in preparation for pumping to waste. Retested and TA = 80, FC = 2.0 and in need of a pint or two of MA.
 
Welcome to the forum. :wave:

It sounds like you still have a bit of a mess. Manually remove everything you can with a sturdy leaf net. Once that is done, you can SLAM the pool.....regardless of how murky the water is.

The SLAM process is not a simple shot of chlorine.....it will take you several days

I would suggest you read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School.

Next, Read the SLAM article in Pool School

Now, to your question......you can certainly give it a try. You may remove a lot of the debris and will certainly increase the time between backwashes once you start filtering.
 
Welcome! You might want to do some reading so that you can understand the methods practiced here at TFP. If you want to start maintaining your water without opening your wallet to the pool store, AND have water so clear it sparkles, read Pool School, up above, and the following Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

It's a process that rids your pool of algae without all the chemicals, using just bleach. But, one of the requirements is a good test kit.
 
I guess I'll be the one to tell you this: you need to disassemble your filter and clean it. You might even have to replace grids.

Backwash is not the same as "waste". Waste just sends the water out the discharge port; the incoming water never comes near the filter. On backwash, the flow goes backwards through the grids, from the inside to the outside and then to the discharge. On normal filter, the water goes from outside, through the DE and then goes inside the grid and off to the pool all nice and clean.

You've just filled the inside of your filter - the "clean" side - with the stuff you vacuumed up. I'm surprised it isn't all blowing back into the pool.

DE filters should never be run without the DE on them. The grids are just there to support the stuff, they aren't meant to be directly in contact with sharp bits of sand and twigs that can poke holes in the fabric.
 
Thank you for the info. Makes perfect sense and I had a concern about this but did not think it through. My concern was that the DE filter wasn't up to the job of filtering all the silt i'd be vacumming out(having hit 30PSI trying tol filter it oout with DE) but I see your point and Ill bet you are right. I also think I have to do that(replace) anyway, the dirt we have is gritty and I noticed it building up on my grids and not coming off. In fact a little rock jacked my washing machine when the kids played in the mud during pool construction. When my pool was delivered and turned over no one or any doc mentioned waste. My logic was that if I was running the port in backwash the DE would just be removed anyway. This will be the third time since I put it all back together that Ive cleaned the grids on a full disassemble so sadly I am a pro at it. FWIWumentation, its removing the silt from the pool but I don't think I have a discharge port that doesn't head to the filter. The only thing I have is a spigot for rain water causing the pool to over fill. I would assume the water im pulling pout via vacuum is more than thehose spigot will let out. I vacuum through the skimmer. Also, if the filter is in need of a backwash, and I have a pool full of yuck, it seems like that would ful the grids too. Perhaps witing for all the setiment to fall is where the pool owner patience comes into play...
 
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