Low Pressure In Pool

[PoolProblems]

Hi All,

This is my first year owning a pool. We just moved into a new house with the pool. I had pool company guy open it 2 weeks ago and everything was working fine. On Last Sunday (25th) all of sudden pool pressure dropped and water wasn't flowing as smoothly. Not knowing what to do I switched off the filter and vaccum. While trying to find out what was wrong I saw that water was leaking through backwash pipe. I replaced the ring inside multiposition valve and it fixed the problem with water leaking through backwash. But, I still have very little pressure constantly. It will surge for few seconds and go down right back in few seconds. It doesn't flow constantly. I tried to get 4-5 different pool guys to come and look at it but they are so busy no even has come. All of them are telling me that some where air is leaking. I also replaced the ring on the vessel lid for pump. Any suggestions?

Ofcourse, I did the backwash as first thing when it stopped working.

[wiz722]

I actually have a pool and I work at Leslie's Pool Supplies, and I might be able to help.

What kind of filter do you have? Since it has a multiport valve, it must either be sand or D.E.

Sand filters are almost spherical in shape, and D.E. filters are more or less cylindrical, and must be recharged with D.E. each time it is backwashed.

Also, what is the pressure reading of your filter? What is the normal pressure of your filter (if you know)?

Considering that you replaced the spider gasket inside of the valve and the fact that it is still leaking, I also need to know what you put on the gasket as far as lube or adhesive. Typically when I see this problem, the wrong material was put on it.

One more thing you may want to check is if the weir gate in the skimmer is not stuck shut. Sometimes a leaf or twig will get caught in the side of it and prevent water from getting into the skimmer quickly enough, and so a cycle starts: The pump drains the skimmer, loses prime, and stops pumping, then water seeps through the gaps on the side of the weir gate and fills the skimmer, the pump self-primes, and the process repeats. It may have just been a coincidence that this happened at the same time.

Check these things, and if you see anything else out of the ordinary, let me know, and I can help you find out what is wrong more easily.

[PoolProblems]

I actually have a pool and I work at Leslie's Pool Supplies, and I might be able to help.

What kind of filter do you have? Since it has a multiport valve, it must either be sand or D.E.

Sand filters are almost spherical in shape, and D.E. filters are more or less cylindrical, and must be recharged with D.E. each time it is backwashed.

Also, what is the pressure reading of your filter? What is the normal pressure of your filter (if you know)?

Considering that you replaced the spider gasket inside of the valve and the fact that it is still leaking, I also need to know what you put on the gasket as far as lube or adhesive. Typically when I see this problem, the wrong material was put on it.

One more thing you may want to check is if the weir gate in the skimmer is not stuck shut. Sometimes a leaf or twig will get caught in the side of it and prevent water from getting into the skimmer quickly enough, and so a cycle starts: The pump drains the skimmer, loses prime, and stops pumping, then water seeps through the gaps on the side of the weir gate and fills the skimmer, the pump self-primes, and the process repeats. It may have just been a coincidence that this happened at the same time.

Check these things, and if you see anything else out of the ordinary, let me know, and I can help you find out what is wrong more easily.

Hi there,

Thanks a lot for your detailed reply. Actually, I resolved this problem. Water level was down in the pool and it was sucking air throguh the skimmer. After we added water it worked like a charm. Pressure is 18 currently and stays there.

One question you may be able to help me with is, For vaccuming the pool there is a hose connection inside the skimmer basket. Once I attached hose there and other end to the triangular head and pole, do I need to adjust the suction using the valves before I can vaccum?

Where are you located physically?

[wiz722]

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.