manual cleaning pulls up liner

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D

deeanron

0
Jul 30, 2012
49
Seymour, In
New pool owner as of very late last summer. 24' x 54" above ground purchased from Watsons in Clarksville, IN. Right now, I have been manually cleaning the pool using a 25ft hose stuck in the skimmer box attached to a pool head on a large pole. I noticed last year, that sometimes the vacuum will pull the liner up off the bottom. Is there a way to keep this from happening? Am I pushing the vacuum to slow or do I need a way to reduce the suction on the vacuum head? I do not want to hurt the liner and hoped someone here has seen this issue and knows a way to prevent or solve it.

The season is coming up on us fast and I want to have everything ready.

Thanks!
 
If you have multiple valves coming into the pump ( like 1 that controls the skimmer, 1 that controls the main drain) I would suggest reducing the flow to the skimmer you are using just slightly (reduce it just enough that the liner does not pull up from the force, but you still have plenty of suction to vacuum). Also, what kind of vacuum head are you using? You must use one specifically made for vinyl lined pools, not the concrete pool type.
 
Is it possible you have a vac head for a plaster pool? (Rollers on the bottom?)

A head with brushes on the bottom may halp if that's the case.

The other answer is, as you say, to simply throttle down the amount of flow.

(PJ beat me to it!!)
 
I only have the skimmer for a drain. Not real sure how to control the flow coming in. Is there something I can put inline with the hose of the vacuum to do this or is that something I need to plumb inline with the filter? I will have to double check, but I thought it did have rollers as well as some brushes. It is a triangle style head that came with the pool package. I also need to update my signature with all the details of the pool and filter system. Could the pump/filter be to big? I know they did upgrade those parts as they were out of stock on the one that should have came with the pool. Pretty sure it is a 22in sand filter instead of a 18in.

Thanks!
 
Oh....you have an above ground pool. Sounds to me that your pump is too big, your filter would not really affect the suction you get through the skimmer. You have the proper pool vacuum as well. How does your liner fit? Do you have any "bubbles" under it, or are there wrinkles? When I say bubbles, does it look like the liner is floating anywhere?.....is there air or water trapped under it?
 
Sorry for not explaining that better. Need to get the sig updated. Liner fits pretty darn good. No bubbles or water under it. We do have a a few small wrinkles close to the edge of one side that we missed. Other then those few small wrinkles, the liner looks good the rest of the way around. Seems to pull up in random spots if I go to slow.

If the pump is to big, should I be looking for a different pump or maybe a different impeller? Not sure if I could get the wife to agree with a new pump when this one is not even a year old yet.
 
I would not suggest a new pump. If you do not have any valves between the skimmer and the pump, put one in and throttle it down when you vacuum.

Ball valves are darn cheap but they don't last very long. A Jandy-type valve will serve your purpose well.
 
The pump won't care how much water flow is passing through, although a valve on the pressure side would be better than the suction side. Actually, the pump would use a bit less power when you restrict the flow.

You would have to choke it down quite a bit to cause a suction leak and lose prime....probably too much to vacuum effectively
 

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Getting back the vacuum head idea. I ordered the one pictured below based on reviews on Leslie's site while visiting friends in Arizona. Since I live in Central America (vinyl lined pool nearing completion) with no chance to return it I tried it out on a neighbor's AGP. Seemed to work great. It has two small disc on top that are spring loaded so that if the suction becomes too much they will pop open enough (in theory) to break the suction and them close for normal operation. I bought mine from Pool Spa Wizard for $8 plus shipping (Leslie's was $22.00) and was very happy with the service to get the product to me in the short time I was in Arizona. I have no affiliation with either company.
 

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