I have been working on my pool for a month short story is pool was filled with oak tree leaves & was a total mess. Dipped & dipped some more & got all leaves out but a few. Pool is crystal clear but needs vacuuming. Couldn’t get it to vacuum - pump would prime with main drain & skimmer both open but not with main drain closed. Assuming a clog so tried the rag around the hose in the pump basket to blow it out but no good. Saw the bladder threads & opened the pump basket lid & put the bladder in the skimmer hole , slowly turned the water pressure up like the directions on the package said & it blew the hose out of the skimmer but without the bladder the end of the bladder is on the hose so now I’m really in a pickle. Please - any advice on how to get it out?
Plumber’s Bladder
- Thread starter cindyslou
- Start date
Do you have jandy 2 way valves? If you do these are choke points and sometimes get clogged. By removing the top sometimes you get lucky. The rubber bladders are useless, unfortunately this is not the first post I’ve seen where it has broken in the line. I would only use 
if you loosen up the clog with bladderyou can prime that pump fully on md and quickly shut it off and open skimmer and suck it through. You may have to repeat depending on blockage. Others have mentioned coat hangers if you want to give that a try.
if you loosen up the clog with bladderyou can prime that pump fully on md and quickly shut it off and open skimmer and suck it through. You may have to repeat depending on blockage. Others have mentioned coat hangers if you want to give that a try.
A shop vac will likely suck the deflated / broken bladder out. That will at least get you back to square one.
ferretbone
In The Industry
You did that backwards. You should have put the bladder in the pump first if you could turn off the other lines. Anyway we're past that now.
Buy poolbrehs bladder I have that one too. Close the other lines off, attack this from the pump suction side not the skimmer side.
This part is a must, you need to run the bladder, then go to the skimmer and pump it ok. Use a toilet plunger to plug the skimmer line for a second. Or anything that can seal the skimmer suction hole that you can hold on to. Not a tennis ball etc... The goal is to plug the skimmer for a sec, then unblock it over and over. Creating a back and forth pulse in the line freeing up that bladder and flushing it out the skimmer not the pump..... You will clear that blockage by pumping the skimmer hole while the bladder pushes from the other end. I almost never clear line by just shoving the bladder it one and waiting for something to happen.
I have blown blue racquetballs out of skimmers doing this. Each time you pulse the line you are walking the clog back towards you to the skimmer. good luck
Buy poolbrehs bladder I have that one too. Close the other lines off, attack this from the pump suction side not the skimmer side.
This part is a must, you need to run the bladder, then go to the skimmer and pump it ok. Use a toilet plunger to plug the skimmer line for a second. Or anything that can seal the skimmer suction hole that you can hold on to. Not a tennis ball etc... The goal is to plug the skimmer for a sec, then unblock it over and over. Creating a back and forth pulse in the line freeing up that bladder and flushing it out the skimmer not the pump..... You will clear that blockage by pumping the skimmer hole while the bladder pushes from the other end. I almost never clear line by just shoving the bladder it one and waiting for something to happen.
I have blown blue racquetballs out of skimmers doing this. Each time you pulse the line you are walking the clog back towards you to the skimmer. good luck