Plugged up pipes - how to clear?

[jadedreams]

Hello all, I'm having trouble with my pump/pipes. Yesterday when I went to turn on my pump it wouldn't catch prime. Everything sounded normal, no racket on anything. I took the strainer lid off and tried filling with more water and it actually overflowed so I figured something was plugged up somewhere. I checked the pump impeller and it was able to turn freely so I figured it had to be the lines going to the pump. I tried flushing with water from my hose and even tried exploring with a pipe snake. Never could get the snake to go very far though because of the 90 deg. bend in the pipe. The plug is probably a frog or turtle (been fishing out lots of those lately) that somehow got past the skimmer basket. Any ideas on getting this cleared up? Thanks everyone!

[cleancloths]

You might try a garden hose. If you cannot get pressure they have a device at HomeDepot or Lowes that goes on the end of the garden hose and looks like a 6" section of fat rubber. You insert it into the pipe and turn the water on, it inflates to seal the pipe and then water flows through the pipe. It is used for pressurizing pipes to blast clogs out. I just used one today on a drain pipe.

[jadedreams]

Thanks for the info - I got one of the rubber pieces you mentioned on the way home from work. Hooked it to the garden hose when I got home and it worked like a charm. Out came a frog and a few leaves - let me tell you the frog was NOT a pretty sight after being in the pipes 24 hours!

[handy1]

This post was great - I noticed this year that the suction from the skimmer to the pump is way below what it has been previously. Perhaps something got in there so I'm going to try the garden hose method. Just to check (I don't want to seem too stupid): you insert the garden hose stuff in the pump end of the pipe going to the pool skimmer, right? Thanks!