When to bleed air valve

[JuYuHu]

Hi, when do you all bleed the air valve?

Please comment on the following and if yes, whether it's before/after or both.

Pump basket
Pump cartridge
Automatic chlorinator
Any others?

Thank you!!

 

[duraleigh]

You bleed the air valve anytime you suspect air has gotten into your system. I don't understand the rest of your question, though. air bleed valves are normally found at the top of your filter.......do you have them elsewhere?

 

[Jimrahbe]

JYH,

Basically any time you let air into your system...

If you open the pump lid, you let air in.

If you open your filter to clean the cartridge, you let air in.

If by Automatic Chlorinator, you mean a 3" chlorine puck dispenser, I have no idea as I have never had any reason to use one.

If by Automatic Chlorinator, you mean a SWCG, then yes that would let air in.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[JuYuHu]

Yes, it's just at the top of my filter.

We're brand new pool owners so just want to make sure we're doing things right... we were told to bleed the air valve when priming the pump and before opening the cartridge top. However, someone said to open prior to doing anything and I wasn't sure if it made a difference to open prior to opening the different parts of the system or just to make sure to open before priming the pump.

 

[Nursenini]

We are supposed to "bleed the air valve"???? I know NOTHING about this!!! Ugh

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Most filters have an internal air bleed in them that allows for any trapped air in the filter to be pulled out of the return side of the filter. On the Pentair CLean & Clear filters (as well as the DE filters), there's an internal air bleed assembly. So even if you get air into the system, most of it will bleed out and there will be only a small amount of air in the very upper portion of the filter that you can take care of by opening the air bleed for a few seconds when the pump is running (make sure no one is standing in front of the air bleed opening when you do or else they will get blasted with water).

When you open the filter to clean it out, typically you shut off the pump, open the air bleed and then open the bottom drain plug to drain the water out of it. Opening the air bleed allows the water to flow out of the filter without creating a vacuum space in the upper part of the filter causing water to be sucked back from the return line. It's kind of like how a bath tub has both a drain you open up and an equalizer vent to capture overflow and allow the drain to draw air in smoothly.

If you pump is not staying primed, then that's an entirely different issue with the equipment. Once the pump is primed, the strainer basket should remian filled with water even when the pump is off.

 

[Nursenini]

Thank you for the information, Matt! I guess I need to find and watch some YouTube videos and learn about how to open it. When we had our "pool school" this valve was never mentioned. Literally all we learned was how to turn the system on and off, and how to vacuum.

 

[JuYuHu]

Thank you for the information, Matt! I guess I need to find and watch some YouTube videos and learn about how to open it. When we had our "pool school" this valve was never mentioned. Literally all we learned was how to turn the system on and off, and how to vacuum.

We're also finding out things that were never mentioned during our pool school. I never knew there was a drain plug. When we were cleaning out the filter, there was a lot of sedimentation and some water on the bottom and we fished it out by hand... it would have helped to know!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Pool builders are good at building pools, few are good at either managing pools or teaching others how to manage them. The pool industry is built around the 95% of pool owners that want nothing to do with managing a pool and will call in service "professionals" to fix any issues. So it's not surprising that all you were taught is how to turn it on and off as that is what most pool owners are willing to put into their pools.

Now you know why TFP is one of the most heavily trafficked pool websites.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Nursenini]

I love this place and all of you guys!!