View attachment 59478I have read the past posts about priming problems and checked my set up and tried the tricks for air leakage. This is my first opening with pool. I have grownup with pools and had pools for my kids so I am not totally green to this. A company closed pool for winter. I would like to get pump going to apply chems and I need to add salt as it never was put in. I took plugs out of returns, put drain plugs back in heater, pump and pump basket. SWG was in place but loose, so I tightened couplings. I applied silicone grease to all o-rings. Installed cartridge filters and cleaned and installed filter gasket and tightened top to filter. When I add water to basket to prime it holds water to inlet pipe opening. When I turn on pump it goes to high speed, water gets pulled out of basket, 15 sec. later, water starts to get pulled in from pool, basket fills to the top, pump goes to lower speed and water gets pulled out of basket to halfway full. No suction at skimmer. Water coming in I guess from main drain. When I shut down pump most all water gets sucked out of basket. When I take top off basket there is a suction and when I take off lid, water, I guess from filter comes runnning back into basket. I can also hear water returning to pool on pressure side. (There are no leaks on pressure side.) There is water halfway in skimmer opening, weir is working properly. I am wondering why pump basket holds suction and why water drains out of filter when suction is broken? What can I check next?