Aliens are blowing air in my pool pump!

[Jerrel]

Hi my brain has run dry of ideas, so I realy hope that you have heard of this one before.

When I close the valve of my drain to vacuum the pool via the skimmer, the water barely poors in the pump basket.

When I take off the vacuum hose it has better suction but with lots of air and bubbles.

When I open both valves there is no air nor bubbles at all.

I have changed the pump motor with a new one (hayward 1.5 HP) thinking that the pump might have lost power, but all above mentioned issues remain exactly the same with the new pump.

I took out the filter cartridge to see if it would improve the flo,....but nothing

I rented a camera to check the pipping from the skimmer to the pump to see if it was clogged,...but pipping was clean.

I have replaced all seals from the pump, and again nothing.

I hope you have some ideas I migt try

Thanks a million for your time

Jerrel

[waterbear]

This might be a stupid question but are you purging all the air out of your vacumn hose and making sure it is filled with water before you connect it to the skimmer?
Your pump is losing prime. When you open the main drain it fills with water and regains prime. I am not clear from your post if the loss of prime also occurs if you just shut the drain and have only the skimmer active or if it happend when you hook up the hose and try to vacumn. If it only occurs when you have the vacumn connected I would suspect that you have not purged the vacumn hose of air. If it occurs when you shut the main drain and only have the skimmer going BEFORE you connect the vacumn hose then I would suspect a suction side leak somewhere in your skimmer line.

[Jerrel]

I have the poo for 4 years. This just happend this weekend.

I have bubbles and air in my pump basket when only the skimmer is active (main drain closed) and with out the vacuum hose connected.

When I connect a purged hose to the skimmer I barely get a small stream of water in my pump basket.

Thanks Jerrel

[duraleigh]

Is the water level in the pool high enough to prevent the skimmer from sucking air?

[tenax]

Jerrel, i'm not familiar with your pump persay, but i assume it has a screw on lid over the basket..quite often, prime is lost from something as simple as the o-ring wearing out..i have read from pool pump manufacturers and heard from pool dudes do not lubricate the lid..it come lubricated. i decided to call bs and that this was a scam to simply sell more o-rings..and maybe more pumps if someone thinks they have failed. year before last, i had air and bad prime and checked all my fittings.i ended up having the pool dude out to look at my problem as i couldn't figure it out..darned if there wasn't a small small crack in my o-ring and being black against black background on lid, i couldn't spot it. he put a new one on and i raised the lubrication issue..he said it was bs as well and i got some silicon lube for my ring and a couple of times a season, i grease it up..more correctly, it's simply a heavy duty wear and tear silicone spray lubricant i bought at napa for 5 bucks and it is working great.

[Poolsean]

It's also possible that you have a crack in your pool vaccum hose that's allowing it to suck air and lose prime. Take each hose section and inspect with the pump running. Submerge each section and listen for any signs of tremendous suction taking place, or the problem going away. This may explain the loss of prime when connected to the cleaner.
The bubbles from the skimmer with the cleaner hose removed may be the water vortexing, that is, creating a whirlpool like a tornado action. Remove the skimmer lid and check your skimmer for this taking place. It's easy to spot and will introduce air into your pump. 1.5 hp from the skimmer only is quite a bit of suction. You should have the main drain partially/slightly opened, even with the cleaner attached.

[chrisexv6]

You might want to check and make sure you have the vacuum hose oriented correctly. I learned this the hard way too......the end that swivels *must* be attached to the vacuum head, because its not sealed and will suck air if the water level is low enough in the pool. You may already have it setup correctly, but just in case.....I surely didnt know about that fact until all of a sudden I couldnt vacuum anymore either :)

-Chris

[Jerrel]

Thanks to everyone for your replies.
Duraleigh:
The water is high enough. But the sikker had been sucking air for a couple of hours due to the water being too low. The problem started right after.

Tenax:
Yep, seals are all replaced with new ones. Probpem remains.

Poolsean:
I bought a new hose just in case,..but same result. The bubble are more than just from water vortexing. The volume of the air in the pump basket would be about 6 oz. Thanks for the info on keeping the main drain vale partially open!

Chrisexv6:
Both ends of the hose are far enough below water level to prevent that. But I never knew about the hose having diffrent ends. Great tip!

Tomorrow I have a pool contractor come by. They are going to pressure test the pipping. They told be that they have an echo device with which they can locate the crack if any! From there I will take on the fixing again!

Everyone thanks again! I will post the results

Jerrel.