Opening Pool - low flow on filter/pump

[michiele]

Opened the pool this evening and it didn't go so well. When I tried backwashing the filter, the flow out was very low. I then switched it to "waste", same thing. Back to backwashing and finally got a good flow out. Moved it to filter and it didn't seem to be pulling much water. I am not sure what is going on here. After fooling around some more, I moved it back to backwash and then there was low flow again. Is this a pump problem, a filter problem? How can I troubleshoot it? The filter is older, with sand that is 4 - 5 seasons old. Pump is about 4 years old...

Thanks for any direction here!

Michiele
25,000 gallon inground, vinyl lined pool, sand filter
5 year pool owner

 

[zea3]

Check and make sure the water level is at least 1/2 way up the skimmer.
Open up the valve and check the spider gasket.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Also in addition to what Zea said, check and clean the skimmer and pump strainer baskets. Check to make sure one of the valves in the plumbing isn't parftially closed.

 

[michiele]

Both strainer baskets are empty. Since I was opening the pool, the baskets were in the house - all clean. Opened both plumbing values as well. Took off all the plugs to the return and suction sides... This morning I fooled with the filter some more and I think it might be what Zea said - the spider gasket. It is like roulette, as far as whether it will do what it is suppose to do. At this point, I finally got it filtering like I need. I am going to leave it like that and then look into replacing that spider gasket sometime this week. Hopefully, this will work for me Pool is a swamp right now so I really want to keep it filtering so I can clean it up.