The Pool Cleaner 4x question and sheer descent question

[ohiorookie]

I have The Pool Cleaner 4x. It is not climbing the walls and seems to go slow. Please see pic of plumbing below.

What is your opinion on the plumbing? Did the PB plumb it right? Also, should I turn off the 2 valves on the 2 skimmers and valve for low suction so only the dedicated suction line is open to increase speed for The Pool Cleaner 4x?

The pump will be a dual speed Hayward Tristar 1.5 hp. The PB installed the wrong pump (single speed Hayward Tristar 1.5 hp) and will be putting in the new one when it arrives.

Starting from left to right:
-first pvc pipe is the Return that leads to 3 returns in the pool
-the next is the Sheer Desent (turned off)

-the next leads to 2 Low Water Suctions (no main drain)
-the next is a skimmer
-the next is the dedicated suction for cleaner
-the last is a skimmer

The next question I have is how to run the (2) 16 inch sheer descents. Should I turn off the valve for the returns so just the sheer descents are running to maximize flow?

 

[JamesW]

It does not look like there is a valve on the returns that you can close to control the flow to the shear descents. You need a valve to increase the flow rate to those.

The Pool cleaner manual shows about adjusting the wheel speed to about 11 to 13 RPM. To increase the wheel speed, I would first close the valve to the low suctions, and then slowly close the skimmer valves until the wheel speed is correct. I would keep the low suctions mostly closed anyway to improve the skimmer action.

One thing that you might want to check: The "T" going to the returns is glued on both sides with blue glue, but there does not seem to be glue on the bottom connection. Perhaps they used clear glue or the blue is not visible. I would check all of the PVC connections to make sure that they look like they have been glued. I'm thinking that someone might have missed a glue joint or two.

 

[ohiorookie]

Thank you JamesW. I closed the low suction, closed one skimmer completely and the other just slightly. Doing this brought the rpm's to 12.

I will request the PB to install a valve on the return and glue the valves they missed.

Thanks again!

 

[JamesW]

Just to be clear, I'm not sure that any glue joints were missed. It just looks like there might have been a few missed due to the fact that most joints have clearly visible blue glue, while others don't.

Instead of closing one skimmer completely, you might want to close both about half way so that they both still get some flow and you get better skimming action.

 

[ohiorookie]

Okay, thanks JamesW.