Auto vacuum strains motor, when should I be concerned?

[Draddy]

I have a weird 10k gallon pool...it only has a main drain and 1 suction inlet, no skimmer and 1 line coming back into the pool.

The pump is a 1.5 hp jacuzzi going into a 75 gallon jacuzzi filter.

The vacuum is a mx8 elite. When setting the mx8 up the way the instructions recommend (10 wheel rotations every 20-25 seconds), it seems to be straining the pump. The filter drips from around 11 PSI to 6, and the water level in the pump skimmer drops from at the cap to about half the intake hole (but still covering the suction hole to the impeller).

This seems bad, but is this to be expected? I can dial it back a bit to where it sounds healthier, but just lose the wall climbing and some effectiveness of the vacuum.

Here’s a video of the pump while strained.

Thanks!

 

[ajw22]

It looks to me like the pump is being starved of water and sucking in air. Your MX-8 can't pull enough water though.

Show us some pics of your MX-8 setup and equipment and valves and let us see if we can see things to adjust.

 

[Draddy]

It looks to me like the pump is being starved of water and sucking in air. Your MX-8 can't pull enough water though.

Show us some pics of your MX-8 setup and equipment and valves and let us see if we can see things to adjust.

Thanks for the help!

The pipe in the water is my only vacuum line. There usually is a lillypad skimmer on top of it.

The starvation seems to happen if I turn either the main drain or the vac line fully off.

 

[ajw22]

The pipe in the water is my only vacuum line. There usually is a lillypad skimmer on top of it.

The starvation seems to happen if I turn either the main drain or the vac line fully off.

You need to leave the main drain on a bit to give the pump more water. The vac line alone cannot supply what the pump needs.

 

[Draddy]

You need to leave the main drain on a bit to give the pump more water. The vac line alone cannot supply what the pump needs.

Yeah, makes sense. The vac line is 1.5 inch instead of 2. So I’ll just have to run without the mx8 being able to climb walls. That’s okay.

 

[ajw22]

Crack open the main drain as little as possible to make the pump happy while running the MX-8.