Help with Water Flow & Suction

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E

enjeru

0
Jul 24, 2011
6
Hello all, I'm new here and have a bit of an issue.
Just hired a company to come open my pool for the season about a week ago. They said they checked the filter, cleaned it and put DE in it. I noticed they left the filter running even though the water was well below the intake baskets. (this didn't seem like a smart idea to me?)

At anyrate... They didn't even put my filter baskets into the intakes so I've been working on putting the pool back together mechanically and water parameter speaking. When I tried cleaning/vacuuming the bottom of the pool, there is so little suction that I couldn't clean anything.
I've tried adjusting the valves on the plumbing by my filter, but this markings are mostly faded, I can't seem to get the water to flow any stronger.
This has never happened before with this pool.
I have a Hayward DE Filter
In ground Pool

Any thoughts? - Thanks!
 
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http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp2ay8ZoAH1qfwgujo1_400.png
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Those are my pix of some of the plumbing and equipment. Does this help at all?
All the water flow valves on the plumbing are fully open, the valves which either control the filter intake baskets or the return holes in the pool, have had their markings mostly faded away.
The main switch/valve is on Filter, the same position I've always put it on during the 2 prior years of owning this pool, with no prior issues.

Cheers!
 
Looks like it's set to draw mostly from one side. The 3-way valve on the suction of the pump draws either from the main drain or the skimmer. I can't read the labels but they should tell you which is which.
 
The options on that big round switch thing are...
Filter
Waste
Recirculate
Backwash
Rinse
Close 
Currently it is set to *Filter* just as it always has been while we are running the pool for swimming.
We have 2 labeled Ports (Front and Back) the Valve on them moves in a big circle. On opposite sides there are two black areas listed as OFF, on the other opposing sides it says Port 1/2 with a blue scales that increase in size until it becomes the black OFF parts.
The rest is all faded so I can't make out the scale or words.
I have 2 more valves labeled Port 1 & 2. These only have a On/Off option, which I assume either allows water to flow through those pipe lines or stops the flow. Both of these are set all the way to OPEN.

The Gauge on my Hayward filter suddenly rusted and cracked but it's reading at 10 on the meter. We were told this Gage represents how dirty the DE filter is and when to Backwash it with DE (we do this once it reaches 25-30 on that gauge.

There is this little glass tube sticking out the of plumbing equipment. Right now it is completely empty. I remember being told that water should be seen running through this piece of glass, though I don't remember under what conditions I was suppose to see water circulating in it... Perhaps only while the pool is being backwashed..?

And my Powermaxxx pump seems to have some air trapped in it. I do NOT remember ever seeing air in there before and I think it's not suppose to be like that..? It's a self-priming pump, so if the air shouldn't be there, how do I get rid of it?

I now have a little water coming out of all the returns and water being sucked into both intakes/filter baskets. But it's hardly more then a trickle.

I tried doing a manual vacuum to get the fine debris off the bottom of the pool. But it took 2-3 hours and didnt do a very good job. It should have only taken me an hour or less to vacuum the entire shallow end of my pool!

Any other advice? I'm still pretty new to this and all the terminology.
I don't have anyone to help me here in Maryland, even turning the valves on the pipes is incredibly hard for me!

Cheers!
 
You have the multiport valve (big round switch thing) set correctly. Don't worry about it. You do need to get a new gauge for the filter.

The valve that's right in front of the pump is the one that selects between the skimmer and the main drain.
It looks like there were labels on the piping If you could make them out it would help. Maybe you could take a few more pictures.
 
Yup! That valve in front of the pump is the one that's the hardest to read because it was basically a sticker and over the years it's simply faded away, crumpled and unreadable. The sticker is spilt into 4 different sections. All that can be read is "Port 1/2". "Off". "unreadable". "Off".
I have tried all possible combinations of these valve settings AND the same thing with the valve on Port 2.
Right now, the water flow through the skimmer baskets and the returns to the pool are as strong as I can possibly make them. But it still feels like it's only working at about 1/2 or less then normal.

This is becoming rather annoying on top of all the other horrible things going on. I can't manually vacuum the deep end of my pool this way (can only use my Dolphin Robot).
I guess I'm gonna have to pay to have some pool company come back out and make it all work.
（−＿−；）
 
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