How does the swimming pool vaccum work?

Question

i need to vaccum my pool but i have never used one.

Answer 1

A swimming pool vacuum is usually a line that diverts part of the suction from the main pump. In some cases a pool vacuum has its own pump. The operating head has brushes, some fixed and some manual, that assist in loosening debris from the surface and directing it toward the water intake on the vacuum head.

Any foreign matter picked up with the water will be trapped by the filtration system--larger items like leaves in the prefilter basket, and smaller material in the filter itself. There may be a separate coarse filter that deposits the big stuff into a chamber in the head that has to be emptied after each use.

In the manual version, the pool vacuum is directed over the surface of the pool by an operator using a long handle. In the automatic version, part of the intake water is used to drive whhels that pull the vacuum randomly over the surface of the pool. The suction force of the pump and the natural buoyancy of the water allows the vaccum to crawl right up the vertical walls of the pool.

Frquent vacuuming keeps the pool water clean by taking organic debris out of the pool before it decomposes. It also prolongs the life of the pool liner, be it vinyl or cement, by removing material that can, over time, become attached to the surface and casue it to deteriorate.

Answer 2

Here is how your Vac works in the swimming pool.

First off.... you need your Telescoping pole <usually extends to about 15-16 feet..>, connect your Vac to it, and then connect your suction hose to the Vac.   Now, you want to make sure before you insert the vac hose to the skimmer suction hole, that you fill the hose with water.  IF you just connect the hose, you are going to flood your system with Air, and you could damage your swimming pool equipment <more importantly your Motor/pump> over time.  Pool water is what keeps your motor from overheating.  so in order to fill the hose, you can do a few things.... With your vac in the water and the pole extended as far as it will go <the deeper the hose, the less air you have to start with, as the hose underwater at this point is filled with water and has pushed air out of the other end>  Then Take the hose, and SLOWLY feed it hand over hand into the water.  this will remove like 90-95% of the air.  then connect the hose into the opening at the bottom of your skimmer.

Now..  if you have multiple skimmers, or a main drain <bottom suction>, you should have a shut off valve on your pool plumbing by the motor, and you should have 2 or more plumbing lines coming up out of the ground by the front of your motor.  IF they are marked, you want the one that is marked as M or MD.  the others should be S or Skim.  If they are not marked, simply close one line, and check your skimmer. If the water is still flowing through your skimmer, you now know that the line you closed is for your Main Drain <M or MD> (if this is an above ground pool, or a liner pool, you might also have a side suction that is located 2-3 feet below the water line, this acts in the same capacity, and the same directions should be followed)

Once you figure out which pool line is which, it would be a wise decision to mark them for future reference so you and any technician who comes to your house will know in the event of a problem with your pool>

Now you have shut off your main drain, next, if you have 2 skimmers, you want to close one of them off, some skimmers have a flap at the bottom you can move across the hole to stop the flow of water.  If you do not have one, the single best item you could ever use, is a tennis Ball.  ITs larger than the hole, and will never get sucked into the hole.  Just keep in mind t hat should you shut off the pool pump for any reason, such as to clean the filter basket or the factual pool filter, the ball has air in it, and is buoyant, and will float, so when you get the pool running, you will have to push it back down over the hole..... so now any water  you have going through the pool filter system is now going through your Vac at the bottom of the pool.  IF your Vac is sticking, you can open the valve a little bit on the line that you closed, to reduce the amount of suction you have.

that is how you set up the vac to clean your pool.  

Now... some things to remember and keep in mind.

IF you have good suction and then lose suction so that the vac keeps pulling up from the bottom of your pool, check the Pump filter basket, it probably has some large leaves or other debris, which in turn makes the motor pull less water.

IF you are losing suction and the filter basket is clean, make sure you have a clean filter.  IF you have alot of algae or other debris such as alot of dirt or other organic Silt  etc, it may clog your filter faster than you would expect.  

And while keeping this in mind, when you shut down your main drain, you want to check your Filter's Pressure guage.  IF you have a filter guage that reads 0 (zero) odds are you have a clogged pump basket.  IF you have a pressure of 12 when you close the main drain, and it is now at 22 or higher, it might be time to backwash <or if you are the conservative type, not to mention this will give you the best results> Open your filter, take the filter elements out, and manually hose them off.  this ensures you get the most usefulness from your pool system.

When you are done cleaning and have finished back where you started, just remember to open your main drain line, clean the pump basket, and check your filter pressure, if you have alot of algae or sand etc in the pool, you may need to clean the pool filter, such as a backwash or again... Taking the elements out and cleaning them manually to ensure the best results.