gamble007

So it looks like that's what it was...the spider gasket was all kinds of wrecked when I pulled the valve control arm off. I bought a new gasket, cleaned out the inside of the valve and set the gasket in the valve using silicone glue. I reassembled the valve and voila...no more backwash! Well, that's not completely true...there's still a trickle of water coming out of the backwash tube. When I was replacing the gasket, I did notice that there was some slight damage to one of the walls inside of the valve (like two small notches taken out of the top of a wall), so I'm going to assume that it's due to this damage that the water is still coming out. I'll try to take a picture and post it on here so you can see what I'm talking about. So now that it's no longer constantly backwashing, it seems that I have a new problem. My pump doesn't seem to want to keep its prime. After fixing the valve, I was able to fill the basket that's supposed to be filled with water before turning on the pump and I managed to get it going without too much trouble....the next day however, when the pump started on the timer, it wasn't bringing in any water and couldn't circulate. The strange part is that when you turn the pump off, the basket refills with water pretty much up to the top and as soon as I turn on the pump again, it sucks it all away and no water is coming in. My assumption is that I have a clog somewhere between the pool and that pump, but I've checked the skimmer basket and didn't see a huge amount of leaves or anything. Something else I noticed was that the pressure gauge on the DE container is reading 0...I'm guessing that's not good. Any suggestions?

That is most definitely less than awesome news. Will the damage be obvious when I dismantle the valve? Also, how complicated is it to dismantle it and then put it back together? I'm just worried that in the unlikely case that it's alright, that I might have issues putting it back together properly. One last question...if I need to replace the valve, what am I looking at as far as cost and is it something that would require a "pool guy" to come install? Thanks for your help Quantum.

Hey all...I'm new to these forums (and pool maintenance) so be gentle. I just bought a house with an inground pool that uses a Hayward Vari-Flo pump/valve along with a DE filter. The pool was a black lagoon that we had drained, acid washed and refilled. The guys who cleaned the pool, left the pump running on filter and everything looked great....that was until I got my hands on it. I started screwing around with the valve settings and tried to change it from filter to backwash...while it was running. Water naturally started to come out of the backwash tube, but then I realized that that's not what I actually wanted and went to change the setting back to filter...but water was still coming out of the backwash tube. Eventually I turned it off, but now every time I go to turn the pump on with the valve set to filter, water is coming out of the backwash tube. Yes, I realize I was an idiot for not turning off the pump before switching settings...but now I'm not sure what to do...any suggestions?