Vacuuming

[Rangeball]

For manual vacuuming, Just curious about a few things.

On average, how often do you vacuum, assuming normal operation and not trying to clean up after a problem?

When you do vacuum, do you always vacuum to waste?

[JohnT]

Usually weekly. Sometimes I spot clean to get grass or leaves out after a storm.

I seldom vacuum to waste. Backwashing uses less water, and I'm on a well that doesn't have great water for a pool.

[docsobeck]

i've been a pool owner for almost nine years now, and the next time i vacuum to waste will be the first.

[Bleach=Chlorine?]

I vacuum once every two weeks. I usually use the leaf net to grab a lot of stuff off the bottom since it all settles in one of two spots - deep end around drains and nearby the stairs, off to the side of the returns. I will brush towards the drain weekly or bi-weekly as well. (I have plaster so I don't have to be worried about ripping a liner by "skimming" the bottom.) Never vacuumed to waste but then again, I generally clean the pool very well before opening or vacuuming. I have not backwashed yet this season -- been open over a month already.

[rollinrock]

I dont understand how you vacuum to waste. Wouldn't you use too much water? By the time I got done I would probably be almost below the skimmer line unless I'm missing something here.

[Bleach=Chlorine?]

You only want to vacuum to waste if you are cleaning some nasty stuff, like a layer a couple inches deep worth of leaves and gunk off the bottom. You would not want to do routine vacuuming to waste because of the water loss.

[sailork]

A pretty large number of us use suction side cleaners without strainers. Even so, My filter hasn't needed backwashing for over two months. I think vaccuuming to waste is helpful for short term problems like major algae clean up or plant debris on the bottom. If you don't have that kind of problem then you don't need to vaccuum to waste.

[rpoldervaart]

My Polaris 280 runs daily for 2.5 hours. I use the sand and silt bags so it picks up tons of dust. I also rotate between two bags to allow easier cleaning of a dry bag versus trying to get wet sand out of a wet bag.

Anyway, with running my 280, my floor bottom looks clean, so I'm never vacuuming. Should I be? My builder said with the cleaner, I'll probably never need to vacuum. He told me incorrect information before, so should I be vacuuming for some reason?

In fact, I like the idea that the 280 puts the dirt in the bag that I then empty in the trash versus the vacuum that would put the dirt in the filter.

Thanks,
Robert

[sailork]

You don't need to vaccuum unless there is something on the bottom to vaccuum.

I was just trying to make the point that those of us with kreepy's and baracudas and such constantly vaccuum to filter. Point being that vaccuuming to waste is only necessary for special circumstances.

Rangeball asked if "you always vacuum to waste" and I just meant to say "no."

[Rangeball]

My initial concern was organics being contained in the filter and consuming chlorine versus getting them out of the pool and leaving the bleach to do it's job.

However, the past several days the birds seem to preferentially want to crap in my pool. I've been leaving the vac out ready to go, and am vacuuming daily, sometimes more. The crap is going into the filter (what the pump basket doesn't catch) and my FC has been holding fine, so I quit worrying about this