Pool Newbie here and am wondering if I vacuum to waste in my above ground pool with the vacuum hose attached to the skimmer do I need to stop vacuuming when the water goes below the skimmer or am I safe as long as the hose remains attached? I have a round skimmer basket and the hose attaches via a round plate with a 90 degree elbow that the vacuum hose attaches to. Also when I tried vacuuming last time with the filter set to filter it plugged up in less than 5 minutes, does the waste setting totally bypass the sand? Thanks in advance.
AG Vacuum to Waste :UPDATE: New problem
- Thread starter Munch
- Start date
You can keep vacuuming as long as no air gets into the hose. It is rare to have a vacuum to waste setting on an above ground pool. Often you can open up the filter and simply let the water run out of the filter, but that can be somewhat messy.
I have a Hayward sand filter with a multi port valve on top which has settings for Filter, Backwash, Waste, Rinse, Recirculate and Closed. I have never used the waste function I just read about vacuuming to waste on the forum and figured that's what they meant. Am I mistaken?
You can also just bypass your filter and skimmer all together, just have the hose lay over the side of the pool and down to the ground.
- Apr 8, 2007
- 1,616
- Pool Size
- 17450
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
I have the same function on my multiport and have used it when I have a load of crud like pine needles or leaves from a rainstorm on the bottom of my pool - it goes out the backwash disharge hose and never touches the interior of the filter.
Well I just tried the waste function on my filter and it pumped water out the backwash hose for about a minute and then the pump shut off and tripped the circuit breaker. the pump made a horrible sound when I tried to restart it but after I let it cool down it started back up again quietly. Perhaps it starved the pump of water or maybe the lines need to be hooked up differently for waste? I have no idea what happened but I don't think I will try the waste function again unless I find out what could have caused this. I hadn't even hooked the vacuum up when this happened.
Munch said:
Was anything hooked up at all through the skimmer when you turned th pump on in waste mode? I vacuum to waste a couple of times a year. The way I do it is hook up the vacuum onto your pole, attach the hose to the vac & with the pump/filter running normally, put the other end of the hose up to the return jet so water is forced into the hose & out the vacuum. This removes all air from the hose. Then shut off the pump, switch to waste, put the hose into the hole in the bottom of the skimmer so it seals good then turn the pump back on & start vacuuming.
I hadn't hooked up anything at all to the skimmer. Was running fine in filter mode, unplugged pump, switched to waste mode and plugged in pump. I walked away to see if the water was coming out of the backwash hose (which is 100ft long and goes out to the street) and yelled to my wife to unplug the pump when I saw water was coming out of the hose. Wife later tells me that the pump stopped just before she unplugged it. When I went to start the pump back up in filter mode it made a horrible noise and kept tripping the breaker until I let it sit for 5 minutes and then it worked fine.
UPDATE: I finally got the vacuum to waste working, not sure what went wrong on my first try but it works now. Only problem is that now that I finished vacuuming and the filter is set back to filter, the return is blowing out tons of tiny little bubbles along with the water, also the pump basket is slowly getting air in it. I hate this pool so much. Could it be the pressure from vacuuming caused a leak somewhere between the skimmer and the pump?? I can't wait to see what goes wrong with this pool next.
When you vacuum to waste you lose water from the pool. Check the skimmer to make sure the water level is high enough and isn't pulling air in there.
I had the garden hose in the pool as I vacuumed and the water level was pretty high in the skimmer. I also filled up the pool when I was done until the water in the skimmer was almost to the top and spilling over. There are still a lot of little bubbles spinning around in the pump basket, the filter head makes some noise like there is air inside there and I can see no visible leaks on any of the lines going to or from the pump. Is the little bit of air getting in to the pump a bad thing, can it cause damage??
Is it possible you have not put all back exactly as it was before vacuming? You are definetly sucking air somewhere. Perhaps check your fittings/clamps if anything came loose or is closed properly.
I don't think it's good to let it continue, I do believe it could cause early pump death....
I would shut it off and try to find the source.
I don't think it's good to let it continue, I do believe it could cause early pump death....
I would shut it off and try to find the source.
frustratedpoolmom said:
I was looking at it again and bumped the shut-off valve between the skimmer and pump and heard a small air sucking noise so I poured water over the valve and the bubbles in the pump went away. Stopped running water over the valve and the bubbles came back. Went to pool store, got a new valve and bubbles are gone! The good thing is that soon everything that can break will have been replaced! Thanks for everyones input, very much appreciated.