Vacuuming trouble

[moundman]

Hey everyone,

I did a search and I still can't find what I need. I'm also not sure if this is the correct area.

When I vacuum my pool it doesn't seem to be getting rid of the debris or dirt. Here's what I do when vacuuming and the equipment I have:

I use a pole with a vacuum head attached to it and obviously a hose. I have an inground pool with a Hayward sand filter.

First off I put the vacuum head in the water with the hose attached. I then fill the hose up with water using the jet. When all the air is out I quickly put the end of the hose into the hole below the skimmer basket. So everything seems to be going good and I start to vacuum the bottom of the pool and I notice dirt or debris shooting back into the pool from the water jets. I do leave the the dial on the filter in the "filter" setting right? I have backwashed and it still doesn't seem to help. I also just put new sand in about a month ago. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Richard320]

Any chance you could have cracked something while you were changing sand? Even a hairline crack, barely visible to the naked eye, can open up under pressure.

Other than that, I'm out of ideas.

 

[moundman]

I'll double check but I haven't noticed any water leaking out anywhere. I had a friend that works on pools help me and I know we were very careful. Who knows though we might have. Thanks

 

[Kes]

Is there any reason why you can't vacuum to waste? After vacuuming, a few seconds on rinse and then back to filter. (Before I found TFP I was unaware of the practice of vacuuming through the filter.)

 

[Rangeball]

Is there any reason why you can't vacuum to waste? After vacuuming, a few seconds on rinse and then back to filter. (Before I found TFP I was unaware of the practice of vacuuming through the filter.)

Lose a lot of water doing this every time. I typically only vacuum to waste at the beginning of the year or if something went bad wrong, which hasn't happened since going BBB

If you cracked a lateral inside the filter, you won't see a visible leak outside the filter canister.

 

[Txmat]

I had the same problem early this year. I was told by my pool repair guy that a sand filter will not catch the small particles, particularly when it is clean. So, I vacuumed to waste. I find that if I do not backwash before I vacuum I get a better result. YMMV

 

[waste]

Can't believe that no one else mentioned this...

Get a skim-vac plate for the skimmer, leave the basket in place and line it with a skimmer sock when you vacuum.

 

[moundman]

Great idea. I will be looking into this, this weekend. thanks!