New user / pool owner, need help with polaris vacuum :)

Hey all, I am excited to be a pool owner and excited to find a place with good knowledge. I find so much conflicting advice on the internet... .

For some background... the pool we have is 50'X22' with a spa and roughly 40k gallons so I realize that i started with a large pool, it is about 6-7 years old and was always professionally maintained by the previous owners.

I am doing well with the chemicals, I bought a taylor kit and everything is going well (well besides a high alkalinity, our well water has really high alkalinity so i think it will be a constant battle :)

The issue i am having right now is with my polaris vacuum. I think it might be a 360 model because it has a booster pump and 4 wheels, but its 6-7 years old so I could be wrong. The vacuum will will work great for about 5 minutes or so and then it just stops. The back end lifts up off the floor and it just sits there (only the front wheels on the ground). I can tell its still has water flowing, but the wheels just stop. I took it out of the water and moved one of the wheels because the drive wheel had all the gears grinded down. I thought that would fix it but no.... Any ideas?

Thanks all, and I look forward to being a part of this community.

Justin in Texas

Hi Justin. I am not familiar with this model of Polaris, but hopefully someone will be. I just wanted to say hello and welcome you to the Pool Forum. Hope you enjoy being a part of us!

Hi Justin, and welcome to the forum!

It sounds like you may have a faulty or cracked backup valve, although I can't explain why it would begin to work correctly and then stop. The next time it stops working like that, lift the part of the hose that contains the backup valve out of the water and see if it is spraying water. If it is spraying, and doesn't stop after about 20-30 seconds, then the backup valve is likely the problem, and it's about a $75 fix. If it does stop spraying (like it's supposed to), then see if the unit starts working correctly. Have you taken the unit apart to make sure that the belts don't need to be replaced? Sometimes the drive belt will slip off, or eventually get loose--it's a fairly easy fix and about $15 worth of belts at the pool store (the last time I had to replace mine, anyway).

Thanks for the welcome, I look forward to joining the community! I took it apart last weekend and everything seemed fine but that was my first time to look at one. I will check the backup valve today, I know the backup valve kicks on but I'll have to double check that it kicks off. Thanks for the advice.

I did a little more research and it looks to be a legend 2 made by pentair i think, it looks as though the impeller is getting stuck. it may just be time to replace it and the axle shafts.