Hi! I'm new to the forum and also new to my pool. Inground vinyl pool, Emerson pump mated to a Hayward basket and Hayward Swim Clear cartridge filter. Also has a heat pump inline, haven't attempted to use it yet. Owned an IG pool at the last house for 10 years. Moved in here last fall and have been working on this for two weeks. The pump strainer pot never fills with water fully. Poor suction at the skimmers (it has two). When I plug one skimmer I have gotten just enough suction to vacuum. I was only able to effectively vacuum it once though, and more recently the suction at the skimmer just isn't enough. There is enough water pressure at the jets to circulate chemicals and I've been able to get the chlorine and pH where it should be.
On start up there are some bubbles at the jets but after a few minutes that stops. Despite that the water level in the strainer stays at most around 75% full, and the filter never seems to fill fully. Sometimes the air relief valve will spurt some water but not a continuous stream.
I've replaced the strainer lid o-ring, checked the union at the pump intake (o-ring looks OK, put teflon tape on threads), and taken the pump off and made sure the impeller wasn't obstructed. Also tried removing the filter cartridges. I bought a garden house drain cleaning attachment,
the rubber bladder type. Backfed the pump from both skimmers with it, thinking there might be an obstruction. I noticed a few air bubbles coming from one of the skimmers, as I removed the bladder attachment from the opening at the bottom. I suspect I have a hairline crack in that skimmer that sucks air under a vacuum. We haven't noticed any water loss but I haven't run the bucket test. Is it possible to have a tiny hairline that causes little to no water leakage, but be enough to cause my air problem? We inherited an Aquabot so I don't really need to manually vacuum the pool. In theory I can get by as long as we can keep the water circulating. Thanks in advance for any ideas!!
Matt
On start up there are some bubbles at the jets but after a few minutes that stops. Despite that the water level in the strainer stays at most around 75% full, and the filter never seems to fill fully. Sometimes the air relief valve will spurt some water but not a continuous stream.
I've replaced the strainer lid o-ring, checked the union at the pump intake (o-ring looks OK, put teflon tape on threads), and taken the pump off and made sure the impeller wasn't obstructed. Also tried removing the filter cartridges. I bought a garden house drain cleaning attachment,
the rubber bladder type. Backfed the pump from both skimmers with it, thinking there might be an obstruction. I noticed a few air bubbles coming from one of the skimmers, as I removed the bladder attachment from the opening at the bottom. I suspect I have a hairline crack in that skimmer that sucks air under a vacuum. We haven't noticed any water loss but I haven't run the bucket test. Is it possible to have a tiny hairline that causes little to no water leakage, but be enough to cause my air problem? We inherited an Aquabot so I don't really need to manually vacuum the pool. In theory I can get by as long as we can keep the water circulating. Thanks in advance for any ideas!!
Matt
