Where do you hook your pool vac up in the pool?

Question

Where do you hook your pool vac up in the pool?

Answer 1

there should be a portal on one side (inside, middle) of the pool....the vac should have directions if new?

Answer 2

We have an above ground pool and the vacuum hooks into the filter.

Answer 3

If the pool is equipped with a skimmer ( in grounds and solid wall above grounds will have them), it hooks in there. Some above ground pools with non rigid walls will either have a floating skimmer or an inwall fitting to hook up to.

For ingrounds, the skimmers can vary a bit in design. American Products ( Fox Pools) make one with a single hole at the bottom ( easy to guess which to hook up to) whilst manufacturers like Hayward and Jacuzzi make inground skimmers with two holes. If the pool was built properly, the hole furthest from the pool edge, will be the suction hole.

Before you vac, you'll need to assemble the vac pole, head and hose and make sure you're filter ( if it's a sand one) is set to "filter". If it's not sand and is a cartridge or DE filter, there's nothing to do in that department. If there is large debris, or a lot of debris, you might consider hooking a vac plate up so that debris you suck up ( like twigs) don't make it into the plumbing lines, but get caught instead, in the skimmer basket itself.

You need to get the air out of the vac hose before you plug in. The easiest way, is to attach the vac hose to the vac head, place the head and pole into the water ( across the shallow end is preferable so the entire thing doesn't slip into the deep end) and, uncoiling the hose, walk to your skimmer. Push the hose in through the front door of the skimmer ( remove the basket if you're not using a vac plate) and up onto the deck a foot or so. Head back to the vac pole, find your nearest pool return ( where the water is jetting out) and place the hole in the bottom of the vac head over that return. The water jets into the hose, you'll see it sink. When you see water out the end on the deck at the skimmer, you're ready to plug in after getting out the last foot of air by submerging that end. Plug in and start vaccing. Don't let the vac head come out of the water or suck air whilst you're plugged in if possible. Your pump will lose it's prime and will temporarily not pump water at the least. At worst, it may require that you manually re prime the pump.. Once you've finished vaccing, give it 1 minute for any debris in the hose to clear and unplug your vac. If this is a sand filter, you'll need to back wash, if it isn't, check your pressure gauge for any large increase in pressure. If it reads 5-8 psi more than when you started, you'll probably want to clean the cartridge or if it's a DE filter, bump it. In any event, you'll be wanting to clean out the pump basket.