Learned something and need some help - skimmer / vacuum related

[Gnarbrah]

Hi all -
So my pool is going through its first winter just fine and I'm out there regularly cleaning so at least it looks nice while being too cold to swim.
I've been vacuuming (I know the wrong way but nobody ever told me and the "start up" guy told me to do it exactly this way!) by removing the skimmer basket and plugging the hose in the hole at the bottom of the skimmer.
Worked great for a while then last weekend it stopped working 90%. Tried clearing the line with the garden hose trick to no avail. Then I decided to take the valve apart and there it was - about 9 months worth of leaves!
Cleared the jam and put the valve back together and all is well.
Then I found the mystical "skimmer vacuum plate". Makes perfect sense to use the skimmer basket to catch the leaves so I bought one and just tried it. Bad news it sounds like I've got an air leak in the hose end (sounds like where the coupler and corrugated hose are connected). So the pump struggles and surges then shuts down. I see the ones with the 90 degree elbow that make sense to have the hose come in the weir door but they all seem to be the small size for above ground pools?
Is this to be expected? It seems like a lot of stress on that coupler end of the hose with it sticking straight up out of the skimmer then bending over to the pool.
Any ideas? New hose? Less suction via valve to the skimmer?

Thanks!

 

[Newdude]

Bad news it sounds like I've got an air leak in the hose end (sounds like where the coupler and corrugated hose are connected)

I tried hot glue, epoxy and silicone in mine and they all lasted until the first pull on the hose.

Flip the hose around and put that coupler on the vac head. *if* the other one is ok, you're all fixed up.

I splash my coupler full of water to stop the leak for 20 to 30 minutes. Evidently it doesn't pull much through there. I can usually get half the pool done before needing to splash it full again.

That finally stopped working so i gorilla glued it and used a healthy amount of gorilla tape going about 8 inches up the pipe. It held the rest of the summer. I have a brand new one but the sooner I open it, the sooner it will rip.

I see the ones with the 90 degree elbow that make sense to have the hose come in the weir door but they all seem to be the small size for above ground pools?

That's all I've found and I've looked many times.

 

[Gnarbrah]

Flip the hose around - brilliant! Worth a shot anyway and I've got a roll of gorilla tape as backup!
Excellent tactics!!

 

[Gnarbrah]

Hose flip worked! woo hoo!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

You can ditch the skimmer plate if you want and go back to your old method if you buy an in-line leaf trap for the hose. Hayward and Pentair both make them but I prefer the Hayward design better. I use a leaf trap with my suction side cleaner to avoid suction line blockages.