Rapid Drain Flap on Pentair Prowler 920

[acue180]

Randomly found my rapid drain flap floating in the water. Tried putting back with my fingers and didn’t last 5 min. Tried putting back using needle nose pliers to pull the notches through each hole and didn’t last one clean. I ordered a replacement and will install soon. BUT I have noticed the robot has next to nothing in the basket when I have run it without the flap attached as I await the part. Is it normal for it not to clean without the drain flap in? If so, I will have to buy a new machine if the replacement flap doesn’t fare any better. I was hoping I could just run the machine without the flap permanently but that doesn’t seem to be a good option. Anyone ever have the same issue with this small rubber drain flap, and if so have you had any luck with the robot cleaning even without it?

 

[mknauss]

It needs the flap for the vac to work properly.
A thread about the same issue

Maytronics Dolphin Rapid Drain Flap

I had a weird problem recently, I found some random rubber piece floating in my skimmer. I had no idea where it came from or what is was. I thought maybe it was a piece off the weir door of the skimmer. I searched TFP for “rubber piece” and found an old thread about a piece coming off a...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Apsuhead]

I really had to push the notches through hard from the back side with a screwdriver to get them to go all the way through and attach properly. Once my new flap was installed, the robot cleans like new. It climbs and picks up small debris much better now. I had been getting lots of grass etc stuck going out of the top of the robot before the fix. It would just stir up all the stuff on the bottom of the pool and really not pick up much, now my robot filter basket is full of debris when it finishes cleaning the pool.