Hard to tell from this picture, but it appears that the orifice on the end of the sweep tail is very worn. If it is too large in diameter the Polaris will act the way you describe. Too much water goes out the tail not leaving enough to run the machine. Has no effect on the back-up valve.
I do not think the sweep has ever been replaced and I know it once had a foam thing at the end but that has been long gone.
Its worn, but not worn out. The "wear rings" are worn out. Though very few (actually virtually no one) does it, those split rings on the tail are supposed to be "rotated" like tires to keep the hose itself from wearing out. If you look at the one closest to the head it is probably like new.
Do you have the stainless Allen head screw that goes on where the tail connects to the main unit? The screw can be turned in more to restrict how much water escapes through the tail. You might try that and see if it leaves more power for the motor.
I never even noticed the rings before you pointed it out, I have seen them but never once thought about them. So these are supposed to do something? What do they do? I just though they were part of the hose and that was that. Now that I think about it, what is the tail supposed to do? I never replaced the foam end because I never thought it did anything. I replace my tires on my car, so I know what you mean, but I didn't know that these rings served any purpose.
Increased tail flow decreases water to make the Polaris move. It gets adjusted so that, ideally, the hose does not leave the pool surface (whip off the floor).
Should just need to turn the stainless screw at the sweep tail fitting outward a bit to get flow to it. Someone may have run it all the way in to try to get the machine to move better.
It was turned all the way out. There is so much water coming out of the tail when I held it above the water that it shot almost the entire length of the pool, I dont even think I could get any more flow to the tail at this point. It was completely unscrewed when I checked it an hour ago.
Don’t get your hopes up but it’s worth a try as it’s free. When mine worked, the tail water it also shot pretty far. Would even spray the house windows, or even a couple times it got stuck pointed out of the pool and was on its way to draining the water level.
What do you soak them in? They are a couple feet tall, I dont have any buckets that large.
I cant get the embedding function to work so here is a link to the video:Don’t get your hopes up but it’s worth a try as it’s free. When mine worked, the tail water it also shot pretty far. Would even spray the house windows, or even a couple times it got stuck pointed out of the pool and was on its way to draining the water level.
This is a good link, I am saving this one. I am going to go make some adjustments today to make sure the pressure and RPMs are in line with what this is saying.
When it’s working correctly that tail whips around all over the place. As it climbs walls and heads back down into the water, the tail tends to fling out of the water and squirt water at things around the yard. As a kid my mother was always having to clean the backyard windows because of that and like I said I lost several inches of water when mine got stuck on a step and was spraying it out of the pool.
I used a big green landscaper style bucket because I had one. A garbage can would likely work, or you can buy a 35 or 55 gallon blue plastic drum on the offer up app for $30.
