Vacuming Pool

[nic]

Can someone please tell me what their proceedure is when they vacumn their pool.

I fill my vacum hose with water and then shut th pump off and put the hose in the skimmer. I then turn the pump back on (on filter cycle) and vacum the pool. Once done I shut the pump off and remove the hose and put skimmer basket back and I then backwash the pool and then put it back on filter cycle. With in about 1 hour or so the bottom of the pool is dirty again. Seems like what I just vacumed went through the filter and back in through the return.

Any ides ? Am I doing something wrong or could the sand in the filter need changeing?

thanks

[Trigger]

Can someone please tell me what their proceedure is when they vacumn their pool.

I fill my vacum hose with water and then shut th pump off and put the hose in the skimmer. I then turn the pump back on (on filter cycle) and vacum the pool. Once done I shut the pump off and remove the hose and put skimmer basket back and I then backwash the pool and then put it back on filter cycle. With in about 1 hour or so the bottom of the pool is dirty again. Seems like what I just vacumed went through the filter and back in through the return.

Any ides ? Am I doing something wrong or could the sand in the filter need changeing?

thanks

Hmmm. For the most part, that sounds about right. Vacumming the pool is pretty straight forward. When I'm done vacuuming, I am careful not to let the water that is in the hose go back into the pool (As it could be dirty). I don't think this is your problem, but fwiw, it may help.

Here's a few thoughts.....

There could be a few other things that's going on.

1) Perhaps your filter is dirty? Depending if it's sand, DE or a catridge, you may need to replace the filter medium?

2) are you backwashing the filter enough? If the dirt that was vacuumed up remains in your filter, it will eventually enter back into the pool water. When I backwash, I take a clean white bucket and after running the backwash for a few minutes, I fill the bucket with backwash water and let it settle for a moment. Many times, the wter commming off the hose looks clean, but the water in the bucket tells me otherwise.

3) After backwashing, using the run the filter on "rinse" this will help clear out any dirt left in the filter.

The other problem maybe that you are not actually sucking up the dirt when you vacuum, but simply stirring it up. Take your time when you vacumm. Try not to stir up the dirt but actually vacuum it up. If your vacuum head is old or cracked you may not be getting the appropriate suction. The vacuum head should suck down and slighty stick/grab flat surfaces. The bristles should be staright and stiff. It maybe time to invest in a new, quality vacuum head? ?

4) Before vacuuming, let the water settle down for a while (1 + hour). Let all the particulate matter (dirt) settle on the bottom before you start to vacuum. Otherwise, much of the dirt is still circulating and floating about.

5) I was having a problem with fine dirt remaining in my pool that the vacuum and filter couldn't handle. I bought some "Filter Socks", a fine netting type sock that fit over the skimmer that helped collect the fine dirt.

I hope that helps. Good luck and let us know how you do.

[Pathfinder]

You dont need to shut off the pump when you attach the vacuum hose once the hose is full from priming put it in the skimmer. What may be happening is you are causing an air pocket in which the pump will not gain prime therefore you have no suction and you are just stirring the debris around. Or your sand is so clogged up you will have to use some filter cleaner or change your sand. Lastly if everything else is alright buy a different vac head get one with rollers no brush it works 10X better and faster plus it doesnt stir up the dirt on the bottom of the pool.

Ps if the dirt is fine sand you may have a cracked lateral in you sand filter

[Anka]

[. . .] Once done I shut the pump off and remove the hose and put skimmer basket back

I leave the skimmer basket in when I vacuum and I have a sock in it. I find that I get enough suction that way and the sock catches all the fine debris. I don't shut the pump off when I remove the hose from the gadget on the skimmer basket; I just break the vacuum, take the hose off and let it float in the pool while I change skimmer socks. Then I dismantle the vac setup.