Help with Polaris 360

[flagirl]

My husband and I are trying to install a Polaris 360 which was given to us by one of his coworkers who filled in her storm-damaged pool. We first had to replace all the old feeder lines because they would split when we turned it on. This caused me to give up on it last year.

Now we are having trouble with not having enough pressure to run it. I found a web site which said that the Polaris 360 is designed to work at 15-17 psi. Our pressure was 10 psi. We replaced the pump which was a bit old and got 13 psi. The Polaris is running better, but just doing circles in the deep end. There does seem to be a slight water leak at one of the hose connections so we were going to replace the rubber gasket on it, but I kind of doubt it will do the trick. How do we get the pressure higher? The sand in our filter could stand to be replaced. It's been 8 1/2 years and we've had a few hurricanes since then. Could that make the pressure low? I thought a dirty filter made the pressure reading higher. Would low sand or channeling cause a low reading?

Please help! This free cleaner is turning into a headache for me! :?

 

[JohnT]

Just turn the eyeballs in some of your other returns to raise the pressure. When you turn them 90 degrees they almost completely block the flow to that return.

 

[flagirl]

Thanks for replying! I'm not sure mine turn, though. I *thought* the whole thing just screws in, but I'll doublecheck later. We did install a smaller eye in the other return so that most of the flow goes out the one the cleaner hooks onto.

 

[flagirl]

Well, after doing more research and checking the system over again, I think my problem might be the back-up valve. I found a web site which says that it is supposed to cycle on and off, but more off than on! Mine stays on all the time. I think that is releasing too much pressure. And wouldn't you know it, it's a very expensive part!