What is the difference in vacuuming to waste and vacuuming to the filter? I have never vacuumed to waste so if there is a benefit in clearing up a green pool, can you tell me how to do it? 
Thank you.
Thank you.
Difference in vacuuming
- Thread starter ml143333
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It will all depend if your plumbing supports it. The advantage is that you are pumping the junk directly out of the pool. The disadvantage (advantage in my case) is that you are pumping out pool water that you then have to replace. With my CYA any excuse to pump out water is a good one.
If there is massive amounts of debris on the bottom of the pool, vacuuming to the filter will clog the filter in minutes. Vacuuming to waste will bypass the filter completely - all the debris will go through the pump (except what clogs the pump strainer) and get spit out the waste port. The downside is, you will lose a lot of water. If you're also suffering from elevated CYA levels, that's not always a bad thing.
To do it, you connect the vacuum to the skimmer as normal, then turn the multiport dial to "waste" and that's it.
Has the pool been left open all winter, or did it just get a greenish cast? Vacuuming to waste won't help unless it's big drifts of rotten leaves and pine needles.
To do it, you connect the vacuum to the skimmer as normal, then turn the multiport dial to "waste" and that's it.
Has the pool been left open all winter, or did it just get a greenish cast? Vacuuming to waste won't help unless it's big drifts of rotten leaves and pine needles.
Mandy,
Not sure if you are asking how to physically do it, but if so you push down on the handle on top of your sand filter (with the pump off), rotate the handle till it is pointing at the Waste notch, and then turn pump back on. This will suck the water/junk/algae out of the pool and into your yard or wherever the water goes when you backflush the filter. All you are doing is bypassing the filter, so the water is going from your pool, through the pump, then out the discharge. If you are trying to clear your pool and have to replace water anyway to lower CYA, this would be the preferred method (imho) since you are sucking the worst stuff off the bottom and not putting it into the filter to then have to be flushed out of there.
Glenn
Doh, slow typer and Richard beat me to it lol.
Not sure if you are asking how to physically do it, but if so you push down on the handle on top of your sand filter (with the pump off), rotate the handle till it is pointing at the Waste notch, and then turn pump back on. This will suck the water/junk/algae out of the pool and into your yard or wherever the water goes when you backflush the filter. All you are doing is bypassing the filter, so the water is going from your pool, through the pump, then out the discharge. If you are trying to clear your pool and have to replace water anyway to lower CYA, this would be the preferred method (imho) since you are sucking the worst stuff off the bottom and not putting it into the filter to then have to be flushed out of there.
Glenn
Doh, slow typer and Richard beat me to it lol.
Thank you all!
We were without a pump motor for a period during that late spring until about a week ago. We are trying to get all the gunk out of the pool before we start the SLAM. We got tons of leaves and gunk from the bottom of the pool and are now dealing with sludge although that is minimizing some. I will start manually vacuuming tomorrow night so that we can start the SLAM on Saturday.
We are sitting at a neon green right now, but when we start pulling stuff out, it of course, goes to a deeper green. We can do this!
Thank you for the help - I may try vacuuming to waste at first and see how it goes. We don't need to dump water because of CYA being high since it was reading zero and I just hung the sock yesterday, but if it helps take some pressure off of the filter and gets the process moving, we're all for it!
We were without a pump motor for a period during that late spring until about a week ago. We are trying to get all the gunk out of the pool before we start the SLAM. We got tons of leaves and gunk from the bottom of the pool and are now dealing with sludge although that is minimizing some. I will start manually vacuuming tomorrow night so that we can start the SLAM on Saturday.
We are sitting at a neon green right now, but when we start pulling stuff out, it of course, goes to a deeper green. We can do this!
Thank you for the help - I may try vacuuming to waste at first and see how it goes. We don't need to dump water because of CYA being high since it was reading zero and I just hung the sock yesterday, but if it helps take some pressure off of the filter and gets the process moving, we're all for it!
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