When you have an in-ground swimming pool, or any pool for that matter, there will probably come a time when you will need to actually clean the pool. However, if you have an in-floor cleaning system you may find the need to physically clean the pool no longer necessary. For those of you that do not have an in-floor cleaning system and live in an area where there is a lot of debris that gets into the water, you will need to clean the pool from time to time. This includes sweeping the pool floor and skimming off the debris that is floating on the surface. The following are some steps you will need to take in order to effectively clean and vacuum your pool.
I always begin by getting out the equipment I will need. This includes the extension pole, the vac hose, the vac head, the brush, and the skimmer net.
Next, attach the skimmer net to the extension pole and start skimming the debris off the surface of the water. If you regularly clean your pool, you typically will not have much debris to remove from the surface. If the amount is in fact minimal, you can usually just dump the net off to the side of the pool, and it won’t make much of a difference. On the other hand, if there is a substantial amount of debris floating on the top of the water, or if you do not wish to
dump the net off to the side of the pool, you can always just bag it. I always start with this step just to make it a little easier to see the debris that is
ly
ing on the pool floor. When you finish skimming off the surface of the pool, you will want to clean off the net and remove it from the extension pole. Before you get to the vacuuming of the pool, it is a good idea to attach the brush to the extension pole and use it to brush the debris off the steps. Now you are ready to start vacuuming the pool. On newer swimming pools, the skimmers and main drain are tied together at the pump through a valve right before the pump. You will want to isolate one of the skimmers to adequately vacuum the pool by turning the valves at the pump so that water from the pool going into the pump is only coming from one skimmer. This will increase the suction from that skimmer and give you the most power to vacuum the pool. Next, you will want to attach the vac head to the extension pole, and then attach the vac hose to the vac head. There are a couple ways to go about attaching the vac hose to the skimmer. Some might have what is called a vac plate that will fit perfectly into the skimmer and create a seal.
If you do not have a vac plate, you can just remove the basket from the skimmer and insert the end of the hose directly into the opening at the bottom of the skimmer. Before you do either of these things, you will need to bleed the vac hose of the air that is in it. What I always do for this is just hold the vac head over the return of the pool. This will force the water coming back to the pool from the
pump to got through the vac hose. You will want to hold it there until water comes out of the end of the vac hose. At this point, you are ready to attach the hose to the skimmer either through the vac plate or directly to the opening at the bottom of the skimmer. When you get that done, you should notice that the vac head becomes a bit more difficult to push across the bottom of the pool, and you will see that it is picking up the debris on the bottom. At this point, just push the vac head around the bottom of the pool to get all of the debris off the bottom and walls of the pool. Be careful not to lift the vac head out of the water.
doing that will cause the pump to lose its prime and you will have to let it catch up again. If there is a lot of debris to be removed, you may notice a loss of suction at some point before the pool is entirely clean. When or if that happens, it is the cue for you to backwash the filter.
To do that you will want to turn the pump off and switch the multi port valve of the filter to backwash. Be sure to roll out you backwash hose to where you want the water to go. Then turn the pump back on and let it run for a a minute or so. Then turn the pump off again and switch the multi port valve to rinse. Now you will turn the pump on again and let the water drain until the sight glass on the side of the multi port valve is clear again. Finally you are ready to turn the multi port valve back to filter and continue vacuuming. You may need to bleed the vac hose of air again. Once you finish cleaning the pool you may want to backwash again. Either way, you can remove the hose from the skimmer, clean out the skimmer basket and put it back into the skimmer. At this point, you will want to turn the pump off and clean out the pump basket of everything you just swept up. Then, put it back into the pump, replace the cover and start the pump again. Congratulations you have successfully vacuumed your pool!
Now you can neatly put your equipment away, and go about your way or stick around and enjoy your clean pool.
