I am located in NW Houston. My store can be found by typing in 77065 as the ZIP code on the store locator on the Leslie's web site. It should be the first result; it is the only one on Jones Road, though.
Anyway, before you vacuum, be sure to fill the hose with water first. The easiest way to do this is find the return jet closest to the pool pump and hold up one end of the hose to this jet, and hold the other end just below the surface. When the hose stops bubbling, it is full.
If the jet won't supply enough pressure, then manually fill it by dunking one end, lifting the end up until your arm is extended to let gravity pull it through, then repeat until water comes out the other end.
Then, before you adjust your valves and start the process, I would recommend that you go to a pool store and buy what is called a "Vacuum Plate" that is placed on top of your skimmer basket and has a port for hooking up the hose. This will prevent the risk of large debris clogging your pipe, while also allowing easy clean-out, since you won't have to open the pump and have to re-prime it. Also, most skimmer baskets typically have a larger capacity than a pump basket. Depending on the size of your skimmer, the plate will cost usually between 10 and 20 dollars, but is completely reusable.
Whether you decide to use the vacuum plate or not, the hard part is actually describing what valves to turn, since there are many different pool plumbing setups. Knowing that you have a multiport valve on your filter will help limit the number of possible configurations, but to give you the best one, I need a few bits of information:
- How many skimmers do you have?
- How many valves are plumbed into the piping before the pump intake? (Go to your pump, start at its intake, and work backwards (the opposite direction of the water flow). Note how many times it splits, and how many of these splits have a valve of some sort.)
- In each skimmer, pull out the basket. Is there a somewhat "UFO" shaped "thing" at the bottom? Tell me if you have these. Now if you do have these, pull them out (with the pump off, so they come out easily). Now, whether you do or don't have them, how many pipe openings are under each skimmer basket? There will either be one (1) or two (2).
By knowing these things, I can help optimize the vacuum's suction power.