Vacuuming the pool - Help

[OJH5150]

Hello All,
Wish you all a wonderful, safe and Happy New Year. Im new to performing the maintenance of my pool been paying for service. But my service provider has been under the weather with health issues so having to tackle some of the maintenance and upkeep of my pool. So I have been attempting to vacuum the pool and I have a question. I have pool vacuum hose 1 1/2", I've noticed that when I try to connect the hose to the skimmer it doesnt stay in the skimmer port and will float up. just wondering if its the vauum force from the pool pump that keeps the hose in place within the vauum hose or if I need some other type of connection for the hose and the skimmer. If I do need to get another connection/adaptor if you would know how I could determine the size needed. Thank you.

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! Many skimmers are plumbed with 2" PVC, so the hole in the bottom of the skimmer could be slightly larger than your hose cuff of 1.5". I also vacuum manually and my hose fits into the skimmer hole fairly snug.

However there are many pool owners who use a vacuum plate like this one below. It drops into the skimmer and you connect the hose to it.

 

[Texas Splash]

Here is just one example.

 

[Mdragger88]

Are you getting all the air out of the hose first before connecting?
Are you sure you’re putting it into the suction hole?
There are adapters that allow you to also use the skimmer basket to prevent large debris from getting through your plumbing as Tex mentioned

There’s also universal cone style adapters

 

[98Poolmaster]

We use this part if its 1 1/2 threads they also make one for 2 inch threads

 

[OJH5150]

Thank you all for the information. I'll be looking thru everything you all suggested. I watched some videos on vacuuming the pool and learned how to get the air out of the hose, which made a lot of sense to me. As I have worked with trash pumps, wastewater pumps and we do something similar to prevent a pump from losing prime. so did that from the beginning. I've tried both sides of the suction holes in the skimmer and tried both skimmers holes seem to be the same too large for the 1-1/2 vacuum hose. also learned to use the side of the hose that swivels for the vacuum head that goes attached to the pole. Agin, really appricate all the information provided and guidance. The holes in the skimmers dont have any threads, just an fyi.