Ecostar problems

[67impala]

Greetings! New to the forum and love the wealth of info.

I just had my pool redone and replaced all the equipment with Hayward. I now have the Ecostar VS pump, 4820 DE filter and Aquarite salt system (not turned on yet).
I am running 1 1/2" piping throughout.

Like most I see on this forum, I have the typical air in the basket issue. I'm working on trying to resolve that. I had a backflow valve installed on the intake of the pump, which I'm going to just remove and go straight in. One less restriction. I'm also going to do the shaving cream test on the pipes, which I suspect as having some small air gaps.

One thing I'm baffled about is the lack of suction on the skimmer. It's clear but when the pump is running at 2000 rpm, the skimmer doesn't appear to have any suction. It's one of those baskets with the floating sleeve type. When I had the single speed pump on there the sleeve would get pulled down and the water would skim great. Now, with the Ecostar, I have to have it at high rpm for it to do that. It's not skimming at all.

 

[JasonLion]

Do you have a main drain or more than one skimmer?

Some air in the basket is completely normal. If the pump loses prime there is a problem, but an inch or two of air doesn't mean anything.

 

[67impala]

Yes, I have a main drain and only one skimmer. From what I have read, air in the basket is normal, but It dropped to just below the inlet pipe on low speed. I set it to run at 2000 rpm and had it run overnight. It dropped about 1 inch. I'm pulling out the backflow valve tonight and replumbing that part. I'll hit it with shaving cream this weekend.

 

[JasonLion]

Hopefully you have a valve that lets you adjust the flow between the main drain and the skimmer. If you direct more of the flow to the skimmer and less to the main drain, the skimmer should work better at low speed.

 

[67impala]

Actually, I just have a Jandy valve to shut the skimmer off.

 

[JasonLion]

Then all you can do is make sure the skimmer is turned all the way on. Other than that you need to keep the pump running quickly enough so the skimmer skims effectively.

 

[67impala]

I figured the skimmer would have less back pressure due to it being higher than the main drain, therefore easier to get water to flow. I'll just have to play with the settings to find the right speed to get it to skim. Pretty much defeats the purpose of having a variable speed pump.