Hello all,
I found this site online a few months back and its been invaluable in terms of helping me learn how to maintain and enjoy my pool. A problem has now arisen that i need some help with.
My pool has a diverter valve that lets me choose if I want suction on the main drain (bottom of pool) or the skimmer basket, or a combination of both. I have a lot of vacuuming to do so I've been vacuuming to waste running only the skimmer suction and a manual vacuum. Over the weekend i hit a pretty big patch of leaves and pulled them up into the pump area and since then i have been unable to maintain a good prime on the skimmer side.
The main pool drain line (alone or in tandem with the skimmer) primes no problem - which makes it seem there could be a leak on the skimmer side. If I prime the pump using the main drain, then switch to the Skimmer, bubbles flood into the pump basket. Then it seems to struggle for awhile and the water level drops. Then it starts building up again and as soon as it seems that its about to prime, the water level drops again.
There is only about 2 feet of above ground exposed pipe with 1 90 degree elbow and an adapter to the diverter valve. Nothing seems to be cracked, and I have yet to try running water over this part to try to see if the water is being sucked in (a trick I found on here).
My question is would air coming into the system cause it to build up almost to a prime and then seem to lose suction?
Thanks for any help or advice!!!
-clink
I found this site online a few months back and its been invaluable in terms of helping me learn how to maintain and enjoy my pool. A problem has now arisen that i need some help with.
My pool has a diverter valve that lets me choose if I want suction on the main drain (bottom of pool) or the skimmer basket, or a combination of both. I have a lot of vacuuming to do so I've been vacuuming to waste running only the skimmer suction and a manual vacuum. Over the weekend i hit a pretty big patch of leaves and pulled them up into the pump area and since then i have been unable to maintain a good prime on the skimmer side.
The main pool drain line (alone or in tandem with the skimmer) primes no problem - which makes it seem there could be a leak on the skimmer side. If I prime the pump using the main drain, then switch to the Skimmer, bubbles flood into the pump basket. Then it seems to struggle for awhile and the water level drops. Then it starts building up again and as soon as it seems that its about to prime, the water level drops again.
There is only about 2 feet of above ground exposed pipe with 1 90 degree elbow and an adapter to the diverter valve. Nothing seems to be cracked, and I have yet to try running water over this part to try to see if the water is being sucked in (a trick I found on here).
My question is would air coming into the system cause it to build up almost to a prime and then seem to lose suction?
Thanks for any help or advice!!!
-clink