hi dave - thanks. yes - it does sit above the pool. i do give it quite a while to build up pressure but this time i'm not getting anything more than a very low flow of water coming through. at this point, i've taken everything apart and put it back together again. the frustrating part is that it was working when I first fired her up. I vaccumed for a bit (opening pool) and lost pressure about half way through the clean up. I didnt have a whole lot of crud in the strainer but I did empty nit a couple times. My gut says its an airleak on the suction side but I'll be darned if I can find/fix it...