Vacuuming issue

[SwampFox76]

Hello everyone, I have a Summer Waves Elite swimming pool with the skimmer attached to the side, it is the 14ft x 48in model. I bought the vacuum hose attachment that would sit inside of the skimmer so I can vacuum any thing that settles on the bottom of the pool. I have an Intex sand filter hooked up and I'm running into an issue where I guess because the opening is so small when I have it attached it's not sucking the water in fast enough to fill up the skimmer and a sand filter and I know that's going to cause a problem with everything running dry. When I had the older model Summer Waves pool somebody had said that when they had a sand filter hooked up through there skimmer that they were drill holes in the vacuum hose adapter. That was years ago I read that and I don't even know where I found it at. I'm wondering if anybody has tried this and if so how many holes would I have to drill so I don't lose too much suction and am unable to vacuum?

 

[mknauss]

Have you solved your issue? Sorry you received no responses.
As I understand it, if you have our vac hose attached to your skimmer, then the pump is starved for water flow?

 

[thetekgeek]

I had one of those setups on my older ABG pool. You need to prime the vacuum hose before you put the adapter on the skimmer. Place the vacuum head into the water upside down. Then use the other end of the vacuum hose and press it into the return fitting so the water returning to the pool runs into the hose (this might get you a little wet). Slowly raise the vacuum head up to purge the air out of the vacuum hose, but don't let it come completely out of the water. Turn it over and set it on the bottom of the pool. Keep the free end under water while you install the skimmer adapter and then connect the hose to the adapter. Vacuum to your hearts content.

If this doesn't work, then your pump is able to move water faster than the skimmer can deliver it through the vacuum port. I had that problem too. I plumbed in a separate port and a few valves that allowed me to vacuum to the filter while still drawing water from the skimmer. I'm guessing it cost about $50 for the PVC and valves, but allowed me to control the amount of water pulling through the vacuum versus the amount of water moving through the skimmer. I had to hang the vacuum hose over the side of the pool but it was still plenty long to reach throughout the entire pool without issue.

Hope this helps.

 

[SwampFox76]

Have you solved your issue? Sorry you received no responses.
As I understand it, if you have our vac hose attached to your skimmer, then the pump is starved for water flow?

Yes

 

[SwampFox76]

I had one of those setups on my older ABG pool. You need to prime the vacuum hose before you put the adapter on the skimmer. Place the vacuum head into the water upside down. Then use the other end of the vacuum hose and press it into the return fitting so the water returning to the pool runs into the hose (this might get you a little wet). Slowly raise the vacuum head up to purge the air out of the vacuum hose, but don't let it come completely out of the water. Turn it over and set it on the bottom of the pool. Keep the free end under water while you install the skimmer adapter and then connect the hose to the adapter. Vacuum to your hearts content.

If this doesn't work, then your pump is able to move water faster than the skimmer can deliver it through the vacuum port. I had that problem too. I plumbed in a separate port and a few valves that allowed me to vacuum to the filter while still drawing water from the skimmer. I'm guessing it cost about $50 for the PVC and valves, but allowed me to control the amount of water pulling through the vacuum versus the amount of water moving through the skimmer. I had to hang the vacuum hose over the side of the pool but it was still plenty long to reach throughout the entire pool without issue.

Hope this helps.

so your idea definitely helped me I was trying to figure out how the heck to prime the house since no water would be flowing out of the jet in the pool, and duh, use my garden hose ?

So as you can see in the pictures that I have attached I use one of those type b adapters I took the one end screw part off and force that into a rubber coupling and then the hose that would be used to vacuum in the other Titan down the clamps. ( in the picture it looks more on screwed because I started to unscrew it and figured I would take a picture real quick so that someone can get an idea of what I did) after that I put the garden hose inside of the hose and where I would attach it to the vacuum start at the force the water through it that way until I saw a trickling into the basket on the sand filter, once I saw that I hit the power button and immediately it began to create suction I attached it to both of the vacuum heads that you see without any issue, I will say do not let the Intex style vacuum get caught with the suction on the bottom of the pool or you're going to create a bubble which will immediately stop the suction when it reaches a sand filter and you will have to reprime it. I had a couple of trial-and-error issues with having to reprime it. but I ran into no issue with the sand filter sounding like it was starving for water, the suction was amazing and I was able to vacuum the pool very quickly. Thank you for your help I wanted to avoid building one of those little PVC dedicated vacuum hose lines for now. Trying to save money anyway I can.

 

[thetekgeek]

Very glad that you were able to get it going!