air bleeder on sand filter not working

[aaron_w_o]

Hi all,
today i did a vacuum and a backwash. pool was dirty and it took a little longer than usual. (5 mins backwash vs 2 mins).
I rinsed and started the pump. I heard a whistling or spitting kind of sound and look at my sand filter head. The small bleeder bolt (a plastic threaded bolt) was tightened fully but was not closing off.

anyone know how to repair?

 

[Texas Splash]

Aaron, did you get that bleeder fixed? Almost sounds like a bad O-ring. Let us know if you still need help.

 

[aaron_w_o]

Hey Tex, thanks for checking in.

So after posting, I went outside to mess around with it.
I unscrewed the bleeder plug all the way to inspect it. The attached photo is what I saw.


What's wrong? well, there is NO O-RING on the narrow end there! Of course not knowing there was supposed to be one, I just screwed it back in.
It should have been more obvious there is a little ridge there

Reading along, I went back out and unscrewed it again. Looking down the thread/hole I could see the o-ring loose in the chamber.
Fished it out with tweezers. It was intact, and so I slid it back onto the plastic bolt. It is not in perfect shape, but was salvageable.
I took the opportunity to order a new bolt and o-ring, which came in the mail today actually. 20$.
I now have a spare/sample o-ring that I can hopefully also find in a nearby hardware store so I dont have to buy the ring and bolt kit in the future.
the little o-ring cant be worth more than 1$.