[Updated With Solution] Clogged Main Drain

[manfacro]

Hi all!

It is starting to dawn on me that my main drain is clogged. Symptoms include...

1) Air being pulled in when I set the Jandy to just main drain.... I can't find a air leak. Tried the smoke, plastic wrap, water on connections, but I can't find the source.
2) I noticed a clump of dog hair sitting right on the drain intake on the bottom of the pool for a couple days, that should've easily been sucked up...I always leave the Jandy half/half

I know something can get through, because when I was filling the pool after a water swap, I did start up circulation from main drain because skimmer was above water. Priming took a long while, and of course had a ton of air (or vacuum if it's clogged)


So what should be next step after figuring out this info? Should I dive down and feel for suction? Take the cover off (if I can hold my breath) and take a peak inside?


My gut feeling is there might be a crushed pipe near the pump pit. Before we bought this house the owners had to run conduit to fix something, where they dug has to be right over all plumbing if I had to guess. But I'm not loosing water? I guess I could try a day with main drain set to 100% and turn skimmer off and see if I notice water missing or saturated ground elsewhere.


Thanks for any pointers!

 

[ajw22]

Re: Clogged Main Drain

If properly designed you would not be able to feel suction from the main drain. Pools operate fine without main drains. I would not worry about it. Whatever your main drain is doing is fine as long as you have no leaks.

 

[manfacro]

[Updated] ]Re: Clogged Main Drain

Just an update on the main drain.

Starting with installing the SWG, I had the parts to keep going with the PVC so I decided to try and track down the air leak.

This thread has pictures of the pump area before any work, as well as the SWG install photos.

After that thread, I decided to look for air leaks and has a hard time finding anything above ground, until I found the following Youtube video...

Jandy valve suction side pool pump leak - YouTube

That video helped me narrow down an air leak on my Jandy 3-Way valve, so I ran to the store and grabbed a new 3-Way valve electing to go with the Pentair due to costs, and really not finding a good reason to go with the Jandy again over the Pentair. The completed repair included the valve as well as a new pump union.

This fixed the air leak for the skimmer side, but the main drain still seemed to be pulling air. I am aware the original post here said the skimmer suction did not have an air leak, but since the original post, it was noticed that some air was being pulled in. Not as much as the drain though. The Dig started. I wanted to see where my pipes went to, where the hot tub electrical went to and see where all potential problem could be. I wanted to solve this once and for all.

I was able to fully see where everything was, and I ended up finding the air leak underground. It was at a joint of a 90-Degree fitting. It was actually found the same way the Jandy leak was found, by cycling the 3-Way valve and toggling the suction to the drain line, I saw a tiny bit of water squirt out from the joint. Unfortunately, where I needed to cut the pipe to do the repair, the horizontal pipes are below the normal water line which means I needed to drain 3-4 inches of water from the pool in order to do the full repair. The repair is complete and I can now use both skimmer and the main drain without any bubbles in the pump basket or the return jets!

It was fun learning PVC repair and SWG setup, but I'm done cutting and gluing pipes together! Thanks to this site for the info and search functions to get enough info together to go out and get this done!