Intex sand filter air relief valve letting air in, not letting air out

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kmandeville

Active member
Jun 1, 2020
39
Dracut, MA
I have an intex sand filter with the clear lid on the pump filter basket assembly. The pump filter basket is typically full with water with barely a tiny air pocket at the very top and I hear no surging. When I turn the air relief valve while the pump is running, it actually sucks air IN to the filter pump and the water level drops down in the filter basket and it starts to surge. If I close the relief value, it slowly fills up with water again.

Any hints as to why that would happen? My hoses that lead from the filter basket to the inlets for the pool drop down below the filter level and then up to the T connector and then two hoses up to the inlets from there. One of those hoses doesn't get too much water because I'm using a flow restrictor on the inlet in order to get my intex skimmer to work properly (according to the skimmer instructions).
 
I only ever disconnect things when having to vacuum the pool, I have to disconnect the intex skimmer to block one inlet and hook the vacuum up to the other pump.

The hoses don't seem to be directional at all and no I haven't disconnected them. Like I said, it works and runs normally fine and the basket is full of water with no surging. But I still expect to have water shoot out of the air relief valve if I crack it, but that doesn't happen. Instead it sucks air in and the water level drops.
 
I think the way you explained it may have been confusing. Please correct me if I am wrong. You are not talking about any valve on the actual filter. You are talking about the pump strainer basket. The little knob on the top? With the pump OFF you open that to allow the water to fill (prime) it. But if you open it with the pump running, it will suck air in. This is normal.
 
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Ah ok, yes it is the valve on the top of the pump strainer basket. I had read somewhere else that I thought it was supposed to expel the water. Good to know that it isn't supposed to do that when running. Someone in another thread had recommended that I bleed air from my pump when vacuuming my pool since my pump ends up running low on water in that strainer basket and surges, so assumed that was the air relief valve on my pump. Will figure out where the proper air relief valve is, which must be near or at the top of the sand filter itself. Perhaps the pressure value itself?
 
kmandeville said:
Ah ok, yes it is the valve on the top of the pump strainer basket. I had read somewhere else that I thought it was supposed to expel the water. Good to know that it isn't supposed to do that when running. Someone in another thread had recommended that I bleed air from my pump when vacuuming my pool since my pump ends up running low on water in that strainer basket and surges, so assumed that was the air relief valve on my pump. Will figure out where the proper air relief valve is, which must be near or at the top of the sand filter itself. Perhaps the pressure value itself?
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these set ups really don't vacuum well, better choice is to get one of the intex auto cleaner robots that work off the return pressure
 
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