Help! I'm sick of vacuuming.

[Sunshine427]

Dumb Question, but how do you "vacuum to waste"?? I see the handle where it says "waste", but am I supposed to open the valve on the bottom of the filter so it exits the filter??

[CanuckPool]

when you set your filter to waste it exits out the same hose as your backwash.

[AnnaK]

We're having a similar issue here in Eastern PA. Lots of brown stuff on the bottom, especially in the little dips and creases. In our situation it is most likely not algea but pollen and tree dust. There are some wild cherry trees near the pool and the prevailing winds deposit the wilted tree flowers all over the pool surface. This stuff eventually sinks to the bottom where it loks brown.

At first I thought my filter was blowing sand back into the pool but once the water was warm enough to get in I was able to collect some of this debris and take a look at it. Decomposing tree flowers.

I found out that the more the dogs and I swim, the more we stir up the water and the less of this stuff is in the pool. So hey, borrow a couple of big dogs and let them dive after Frisbees

[shadowman]

Thanks for all the replies. After one more vacuuming I put my Polaris back in and it keeps things stirred up enough that I haven't seen too much brown stuff. It's still too cold to check out the feel of the bottom. I don't think my old Hayward filter has been serviced in a long time so I may tear it down and change the sand and check out the laterals. This is my third summer in this house and I have never seen this before. I love this forum though. It is a real blessing to all of us relative newbies.