Easier way to get the ick out, easier way to vacuum?

[aquamarine]

We began vacuuming the bottom of the pool. It has a year's worth of Crud there, basically.

Soon after starting to vac, the little plastic strainer gets clogged so then we have to stop the vac, go over to the hose, wash out the strainer, put it back, turn on the vac again. Then repeat. At this rate it will take a very long time, many repetitions. Is there an easier way to get the bottom Crud out of the pool?

I know about those bottles of things that help things clump, but it seems like in this case it won't work? A lot of the debris is fairly large but there are all types I figure. A lot of it gets stirred up quickly when vac is on too, so then you kind of have to wait for it to settle down.

I do have a Dolphin but my guy is thinking that it would have trouble with SO much debris in there and it would get clogged fast too, and cleaning it is kind of a pain. So we were going to use the Dolphin only after we get half of this Crud out of the pool.

The net doesn't seem to be any faster or better than vacumming.

Thanks!

 

[Kinguni]

I use a leaf rake (has a deep net and is designed to funnel leaves etc. into it). A LeafMaster works better yet (uses the pressure from a garden hose).

 

[aquamarine]

Ah, that's exactly what I need... thank you!

 

[fuzzy_dba]

...a year's worth of Crud there, basically...plastic strainer gets clogged...it will take a very long time... Is there an easier way to get the bottom Crud out of the pool?
<< I live in the middle of the woods, have lots of trees and a ton of leaves. I use a deep leaf net on the pole. It's not going to be fast but it does work. Using the vaccum will take literally forever, not to mention that a lot of the gunk will go through the strainer basket into the filter. >>

I know about those bottles of things that help things clump, but it seems like in this case it won't work? A lot of the debris is fairly large but there are all types I figure.
<< Using a floc treatment right now will not help. You have to get the gunk from the bottom out of the pool water. >>

We were going to use the Dolphin only after we get half of this Crud out of the pool.
<< Don't even bother trying to use the pool cleaner yet. You have to use the mechanical method, scooping in this case, to get the gunk out. >>

The "Leafmaster" will help, providing the mesh on the net is small enough, but even it's still going to fill up fast and there are separate Leafmasters for gunite and for vinyl.
This is just going to take work and time to get the bottom cleaned.

 

[aquamarine]

Yeah, they should make an extra large LeafMaster or other collector if they don't.

 

[duraleigh]

Hey, Aqua,

I'm on the same page as Fuzzy. I have had to do what you are doing and it seems like a deep, large leaf rake (net) works out to be the best. You'll get 95% of the junk with that (it still takes some time) and then you can vacuum or put the Dolphin in there to work on that last 5%.

 

[aquamarine]

I bought a LeafMaster knock off, but okay, I should probably buy a leaf rake too. It should come in handy someday if not now.

 

[ryansteele]

I had the same problem, so I hooked up my manual vacuum, purged the air with the return line as usual, but instead of hooking it into the skimmer, i simply pulled it over the side of the pool, letting the siphoning action empty all the leaves in my back yard. Granted i had to put 4" of water back in the pool, but yesterday I spent 3 hours and MAYBE covered 25% of my pool. I finished the pool today in 40 min.!! well worth 4" of water!!

 

[aquamarine]

Awesome, I had that idea but wasn't sure it was worth it or not. Now I have your testimonial Thanks.