Pool Opening VAC - VAC power goes to zero

thought i'd ask if this is a common problem ...

when i opened the pool this year (first time) it looked pretty good except for what would seem to be some of the usual stuff at the bottom. the opening guys said our pool was the cleanest they opened this year -- assuming because we closed late ...

anyways, i scopped out much of the worst of the junk at the bottom and started vacumming. after about 5 minutes of sucking up junk there was no more suction in the vac and the line had disengaged from the aqua genie.

my eyes bugged out and my jaw dropped -- oh no! :o

so i cleaned out the secondary filter and backwashed. then the vac worked again until it didn't and i repeated the procedure a couple more times.

from what i can see from other threads some filters have vac to waste features which must mean that what you vac gets sprayed out immediately. i didn't notice anything like that on mine.

was my experience normal? it hasn't recurred the next few times i've vac'd so i assume i was just overloading the secondary filter -- true?

is there a better way to deal with this issue? concerned that i'm setting myself up for future problems.

any feedback much appreciated.

In the spring, I always vac the gook on the bottom of the pool with the filter set to Drain. That way all that stuff is not going through the filter at all. You should have a Drain setting on your filter? I am assuming you have an AG??

sheesh i haven't been here for a while!
pool is ig
but the problem has been recurring throughout the summer

similar issue with the heater sometimes
it goes for an hour or two then bam -- kicks off
turn it off for a period of time -- then it works again

doesn't make sense to me
theres no consistent pattern ...