cleaned out de filter but......

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Well, this saga goes from bad to worse. I wish I had never started.

I bought the manual vacuum stuff I needed. Connected it all up this morning to the skimmer, was working at getting the air out of the hose to start the vacuum and after a very long time realised that it wasn't working at all.. The filter pump shows no pressure, the water isn't being sucked through the skimmer baskets and nothing coming out of the returns.

I've tried releasing the air from the filter, there was quite a bit in there. But that hasn't helped. Right now, everything is turned off and I'm kind of hoping that an air block will magically release itself.

There has been a lot of rainfall here, my pool is in a disgusting state with leaves all over the bottom. I stopped using the polaris based on the advice here and wasn't able to get all the stuff I needed and get going until this morning. Altogether, not a happy camper here.
 
Did you get any suction at all? Did the pump lose prime?

It's not uncommon at all for those skimmer plates to come loose or allow a lot air to get into the system. That would cause the pump to lose prime. If you put it all back together, does the pool act normally?
 
I've put it all back together, added water to the basket just before the pump, waited for it to prime but there is a tiny trickle of water coming in from the pool. I turned everything off, released the air from the filter and the water that drained back into the skimmer from the filter had DE in it. Is this normal?

I tried getting the spa to filter to see if that would help or do anything, but nothing happened.

After this, I turned everything back on, kept the air release open but no air came out. Pressure is at zero when i close the valve, there is no pressure build up.
 
Sounds like you may have clogged the suction side of the plumbing with a mix of DE and leaves, etc. You going to have snake line to find the clog or use a DrainKing to blow it out.

Maybe others can better advise.
 
The vacuum hose has been disconnected. It wasn't doing anything. Weir doors are fine.

It's now raining very heavily here and I may need to empty water out of the pool - I'm guessing that isn't going to work either.
 
So, I ran the pump again and when there was a bit of water coming out of the air release on the filter, I closed that up. There is still hardly any water coming from the pool.
I switched over to the waste on the MPV thinking that this might tell me if the problem was with the filter since the waste bypasses the filter ( doesn't it?). It made no difference so I guess that the problem is with the suction side from the pool to the pump.

I have a drainking thing but I don't know how I would use this. I have 2 skimmers. Would I use the drain king at the skimmer end or the end that goes into the basket before the motor?
 
If you have a trickle of water visible in the pump strainer, give it a minute or two to catch prime.

Check the skimmers while the pump is on to see if they remain full of water.

When you turn off the pump, watch for water to squirt out on the suction side. That's a good way to identify a suction side air leak.

Make sure that the pump basket is seated correctly. If it's not seated correctly,the water will be blocked.
 

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I turned it on, waited for it to catch prime and went to take a look at the pool. As I did, there was DE going into the pool from the returns. I went back and turned it off. Pressure was at just about 0, maybe very slightly up. It had seemed to catch prime. HOwever, when I turned it on again and went to look to see if there was more DE, it didn't prime and there was nothing visible ( water or DE) coming out of the returns.

I'm now soaking wet and tbh, this is the 4th day for me on this and I'm done for the day.

I suppose tomorrow, I will see what happens, maybe something will have settled overnight. Because of the DE going back into the pool, I'm expecting to have to take apart the filter again and see what's going on there?

I thought about taking photos but there isn't really anything to photograph that I think would help.
 
What pump do you have?

Start fresh tomorrow. Check all of the things that I noted. If you get full prime, put a scoop of de in the skimmer to see if it shoots out of the returns.
 
Good morning everybody!

I ran the pump for a good 5 minutes earlier. No difference from yesterday unfortunately.
It did not prime
only a small trickle of water going into the pump basket.
filter pressure stayed at 0
no air coming out of the release valve
almost no air coming out of the returns

Pump basket is clear and seated correctly.
I can't see/feel any obstruction in the impeller.

If I look for this squirt of water coming out of the returns after I've switched off pump, how quickly will this happen? It takes about 10 seconds for me to get to the poolside from the pump and I didn't see this earlier but maybe it happens immediately?

Next steps please?
 
The water level is fine. It is about 1.5 inches below the max- plenty of space for leaves etc and plenty of water so that the level in the basket is not dropping.

I'll take some pics and upload. What was the upload service? I can't remember.
 
<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://s1141.photobucket.com/user/karenstlys/embed/slideshow/"></iframe>


water level in the skimmer baskets doesn't change at all with pump running.

One of the pictures shows DE which flowed back from the filter when everything was switched off and I released the air valve as I wanted to take a look inside the filter. Haven't done that yet but this is surely suggesting that the problem lies in the filter?

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://s1141.photobucket.com/user/karenstlys/embed/story"></iframe>

- - - Updated - - -

How do I get the pictures on the forum from photobucket? Which link do I copy?
 
I've just taken the top of the filter off.

Inside, there is DE all over the top of the manifold, the breather is covered in it too and the edge of the filter housing where the "O" ring is, also has a layer of DE. I'm guessing this is not normal?

Manifold is seated correctly and the elbow also seems to be fine.
 

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