Pop up cleaners not popping

[Ant_hill_new]

Infloor cleaner zones not switching

My in floor cleaner always worked great. New build from 4 years ago.

Pool guy would maintain the pool up until the start of this year. We started doing it and unfortunately the salt cell wasn’t working so the pool turned green.

Algaecide and shock fixed it quite quickly - used troublefreepool.com tutorial and am very grateful for that.

Ever since the front zone of the pool cleaners isnt working. I have done the following:

- replaced the filters
- replaced the salt cell
- set the pump all the way up, and to other settings too
- cleared the skimmers and any pump tubes that catch debris
- looked at the in floor cleaner gears/mechanism
- took out the in floor cleaners, what is visible is that water is being pushed through the tubes in one half of the pool but other half has no current

The in floor cleaners seem to mechanically work, and their mechanism by the pump also looks fine

So im at a loss. I assume there must be a blockage of some kind in the tubes or something else. Id appreciate any help.

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

Post pictures of your equipment pad and valves.

Standby until @proavia wanders by.

 

[TinFoilHat]

You probably need a new gearset for your cleaning head, depending on which one you have. The gears do wear out though at 4 years it's a bit surprising.

 

[Ant_hill_new]

You probably need a new gearset for your cleaning head

Ok i can do that. I visually inspected it and saw no damage.

 

[Ant_hill_new]

Post pictures of your equipment pad and valves.

I have moved the valves into different positions and nothing helped. Here are the pictures. Let me know if theyre not the right ones.

 

[TinFoilHat]

Yeah, you have the same setup I have. There are also flip ups for every port inside the head and they can break off and jam the head. I am hoping they had fixed that for the newer versions like mine but then you say yours is 4 years old so now I just don't know. Mine was about 17 years old and the flips kept breaking off. I also did the gear sets myself twice. I finally got the entire head assembly replaced under my lifetime parts warranty from Shasta. They did that about 5 years ago and it's been marvelous since then. That three way valve on the top of the piping that feeds the cleaner head should allow you to return water to the other pipe back to the pool, if that's what you're asking. Perhaps that only goes to a water feature though?

 

[proavia]

Chances are that the impeller gear (under the impeller fins) is worn. Or one of the other gears on the underside is worn.
Each gear has a larger top side gear and a much smaller gear underneath. The smaller gear will usually wear or strip out first.

Also, check the T-valves to see if one popped loose and is jamming the valve functioning.
You have to remove the gearset to check the T-valves.
Be sure to put the gearset back in correctly - and that the cam is installed so it actually lifts the T-valves as the gearset rotates thru each zone.

If the builder was Shasta, contact them for warranty work, otherwise.....
If you are the original owner, contact A&A (now Pentair) and see if the warranty is still in effect.
Before Pentair bought A&A, the original owner had a lifetime warranty on moveable parts. I have not had a need to contact them since Pentair acquired them.