My set up has a dedicated line for my Hayward cleaner and another line for the single skimmer. We had a bad freeze causing my Ficus trees to drop a lot more leaves than usual. I notice my cleaner was not moving as fast as normal so i pulled it apart and did not find anything wrong. The Skimmer and Cleaner suction lines meet just prior to the pump basket and there is a valve that allowes my to balance the flow by turning one side off more that the other. I notice that if I set the value to shut off the cleaner and dedicate more suction to the skimmer, the pump runs nice and quiet with no problem. If I set the valve for more suction on the cleaner line, I get a lot of cavitation and if I keep moving it that direction I slowly loose water flow.

I have a blockage in that dedicated suction line for the cleaner. The cleaner does not have one of those leaf baskets in the line that floats in the pool but I will add one once I get this issue resolved. We usually do not see leaves dropping like this.

Here is my thought. The most likely spot for the blockage to have occured is right at that value so I plan to start by pulling it apart ( it is a circular head with about 12 screws and a handle that says "close") .. Is there anything to watch for when I pull the vale apart ? Should I lube the inside once apart ? It if quite hard to move.

If I do not find the obvious problem right at the valve, What next ? Try to blow the line out ? Can I snake it ? I know it has a couple 90* bends between the valve and the pool wall.

Any advice, stories of success is welcomed ...