crazy vacuum problem

2nd year of our pool, an above ground 30', have had the pool open for about 8 days, all installed ok, and chemical levels are good. Have had a lot of debris that got in off our cover, and have been working at cleaning the past 5 days. Most of the time have been bypassing as waste since its leaves etc, finished cleaning 2 nights ago, went out yesterday morning to vacuum again, and the return hose, from skimmer to pump, kinks shut whenever we hook up the vacuum hose to the skimmer. Pull out the vacuum hose, and it filters just fine. Thought maybe our vacuum hose had a leak/hold in it, bought a smaller/cheap one, and it does the same thing.

I am at a total loss, my only thought is there is debris that is stuck in the skimmer to pump hose, yet I don't know why it would filter ok, and only do this when attempting to vacuum.

Thoughts?

thanks in advance -
Paul

Hi Paul;

You probably have a weak hose from the skimmer to the pump.

When you got a smaller cheap vac hose, you actually made the problem WORSE, by increasing the suction pressure the skimmer-to-pump hose would experience. The skimmer does not restrict flow so much, so you don't have problem till you put the vac hose back.

I realize this may be counter-intuitive. But you can probably solve your problem by replacing the skimmer-to-pump hose and getting a larger diameter vacuum hose.

Other possible fixes:
+ put a hose clamp snugly, but not tightly, around the skimmer to pump hose at the point where the kink occurs; doing so will resist the kink.
+ if you have a valve on the DISCHARGE size of your pump, throttle it when you are going to vacuum. You can probably find a point that restricts the flow enough so that the hose won't kink, but the vacuum will still work.

Ben