Paramount system not working right

[kluczenk]

I recently purchased a new house that came with a pool and in-ground cleaning system. The dealer who installed the pool told me it was a Paramount but I did not get the exact model number. There are two manifolds on the side of the pool and I believe there are 10 or 11 cleaning heads throughout the pool. When I had my pool opened the system seemed to work alright and would run until the pumps shut down. I tried running it again recently and though it seems to start running alright after about 10 minutes of operation the PSI drops low on the manifolds and the heads aren't doing any real work. After further inspection I saw that the pump for the system didn't seem to be getting good suction as the water level in the basket was low and the one-way valve on the return piping seemed closed.

The only thing I can think of that changed was I had my main drain/vacuum pump replaced. The two pumps used to be identical 1.5HP pumps but the new main pump is now a 1.6HP pump. Could that be the cause of my problem? I noticed that the main pump needs to be on for me to activate the cleaning system and perhaps the new, more powerful, pump is causing a lack of water flow to the cleaning system pump. Thoughts for a newbie?

[mas985]

I'm not clear on what your setup changed from and to.

Do you have actually model #'s for the old and new pump(s)?

Also, did you have two pumps and then go to a single pump?

When the system starts off working but then flow rate decreases, what happens to the filter pressure?

If the manifold pressure is dropping while the filter pressure is increasing, the problem is likely with the filter. What type of filter do you have and have you backwashed/cleaned it recently?

[Pool Clown]

I recently purchased a new house that came with a pool and in-ground cleaning system. The dealer who installed the pool told me it was a Paramount but I did not get the exact model number. There are two manifolds on the side of the pool and I believe there are 10 or 11 cleaning heads throughout the pool. When I had my pool opened the system seemed to work alright and would run until the pumps shut down. I tried running it again recently and though it seems to start running alright after about 10 minutes of operation the PSI drops low on the manifolds and the heads aren't doing any real work. After further inspection I saw that the pump for the system didn't seem to be getting good suction as the water level in the basket was low and the one-way valve on the return piping seemed closed.

The only thing I can think of that changed was I had my main drain/vacuum pump replaced. The two pumps used to be identical 1.5HP pumps but the new main pump is now a 1.6HP pump. Could that be the cause of my problem? I noticed that the main pump needs to be on for me to activate the cleaning system and perhaps the new, more powerful, pump is causing a lack of water flow to the cleaning system pump. Thoughts for a newbie?

The different pump probably has nothing to do with the cleaner, two different plumbing circuits. The cleaner pump likely gets it's water from the skimmer, so check the skimmer for low pool water level or a stuck skimmer wier, and of course check to make sure skimmer basket and pump basket are clean of leaves, debris.