Intex wall skimmer + dual ports + intex vacuum, best methods of hooking vac up?

[theskyisthelimit99]

Still a bit of a newbie with my intex 18x52 pool.. i have dual intakes.. i have one intake blocked, so the wall skimmer (intex) works better. I have the kit from intex with the vacuum, which i think is a 1.5" hose and has the screw on blue connection.

Whats the best procedure for hooking up the vac.. do i really need to turn off the pump before hooking it up (sand filter)? (Doing this loses the timer settings, another pain/topic).

I think maybe the easiest way would be to somehow just "stop" the skimmer.. then remove the stopper from the other intake and screw on the vacuum adapter/hose?

Curious how everyone handles this..

Thanks in advance

 

[mulia]

Well, you can't stop the flow on both, or there will be no flow to the pump.
You have the order backwards.

1- remove plug from second inlet, both will be open
2- plug skimmer
3- connect vac to 2nd inlet now only vac will be open.

This way, you can leave the pump running while hooking up
Fill vac hose with water before connecting it or you'll suck all that air into your pump & will have to backwash to reprime the pump.
I always fill my vac hose at the return jet.
It fills up very fast! Then, keeping the end you are holding under the water, take it to the second inlet and connect.
As far as stopping flow on the intex skimmer, If I remember,take the hose off at the pool fitting & plug there?
I don't have an intex skimmer anymore

 

[theskyisthelimit99]

Well, you can't stop the flow on both, or there will be no flow to the pump.
You have the order backwards.

1- remove plug from second inlet, both will be open
2- plug skimmer
3- connect vac to 2nd inlet now only vac will be open.

This way, you can leave the pump running while hooking up
Fill vac hose with water before connecting it or you'll suck all that air into your pump & will have to backwash to reprime the pump.
I always fill my vac hose at the return jet.
It fills up very fast! Then, keeping the end you are holding under the water, take it to the second inlet and connect.
As far as stopping flow on the intex skimmer, If I remember,take the hose off at the pool fitting & plug there?
I don't have an intex skimmer anymore

Ok yeah, well i guess i was hoping i could just "externally" plug the skimmer without removing the hose/unscrewing blue cap (hard to do while pump running too, a bit of a pain).. then unplug the unused/plugged intake and screw on the vacuum hose..

You mentioned making sure the tube fills with water.. i think i ran into this, but i didnt backwash.. i unscrewed the cap on the filter basket portion of the pump system and water flowed again (was this not a good idea, should i really have re-primed?)

 

[mulia]

if there is no air in you pump basket, you are ok!
As far as disconnecting hoses from the outside of the pool to vacuum without shutting off pump,wouldn't you have water shooting everywhere? And your pump would run dry. To do this, you would have to shut off the pump & drain those lines a little
then reconnect the skimmer when you were done
If I'm understanding what you are thinking?
any drop in flow I am going to start( shutting an inlet valve, for example), I shut off my pump first.
When I first hooked this up, I shut an inlet valve ( only one of the 2) while my pump was running, the sand filter gasket blew out of its position and water and sand started shooting out.
It didn't break anything, I took the sand filter apart, cleaned the groove that the gasket seats down in and tightened back down.
Needless to say, I no longer shut inlets with my pump on!