Now won't hold suction to vacuum

[spf30]

Several of you helped find the leak in the suction side from an earlier post, but now, I'm having trouble maintaining suction. It starts off fine, but then all of a sudden I will notice it stops picking up from the bottom of the pool, and sure enough, the suction is gone. It happen yesterday, but I thought it was due to a lower water level since I had been vacuuming to waste. However, today, the water level is more than fine, and the same thing happened.

My signature below has changed regarding the pump (can't see how to edit what appears), but we now have a Hayward, 1 Hp. Can't quite stay on top of the massive amts of pollen settling on the pool with this pump thing going on! Thanks!

 

[woodyp]

If you're using one of those "vacuum plates"..........try sticking the hose end directly into the hole in the bottom of the skimmer instead. Only way I can get suction when using the manual one.

 

[spf30]

Woodyp, I'm not sure I understand here. What do you mean by using a vacuum plate? I have the usual above ground pool set up...flush air out of hose by using return jet, then attach the vacuum attachment to the skimmer, then attach the hose to that. Can you explain a little deeper please? Thanks!

 

[woodyp]

Most AGP skimmers come with a separate plastic vacuum plate that they want you to attach the hose end to. This would then sit flat on top of the skimmer basket...........the idea being for the basket itself to catch any of the rough stuff before being sent to the pump strainer basket. They are notorious for not being able to maintain a good suction seal-especially if the water level isn't high enough.

 

[duraleigh]

It starts off fine, but then all of a sudden I will notice it stops picking up from the bottom of the pool, and sure enough, the suction is gone.

The simplest explanation to that symptom is your filter is clogged. When your vacuum head stops working, do you backwash?

 

[spf30]

Water level isn't the problem, and this seems to be the first year we've had problems losing suction this much, but I'll try backwashing. I didn't think there was that much stuff but perhaps there was. I'll give that a try. Woodyp, is it safe to bypass the skimmer basket? Seems all that stuff would be plugging up the works somewhere else deeper down the line?

 

[woodyp]

I always dip net out anything I think may be a problem first if I don't just use my Pool Rover Jr. to get bigger stuff---------only thing I vacuum to a filter is plain old DIRT.

 

[DanielP]

Start paying attention to the pressure gauge on the filter. When the pressure increases 20% over the freshly backwashed pressure then it's time to backwash.