Maintaining a clean in-ground pool with sparkling water at all times is not an easy task. However, if you understand the importance of maintaining a proper balance between chlorine and pH, you will not excuse yourself from regular vacuuming and keeping it clean.
If you’re just going by instinct to vacuum the pool and not bothering to learn more about it, you will not be doing much in the long run.
When you are trying to get your inground pool clean, it is important to use the proper techniques and tips.
Let’s give you some information on how to vacuum an inground pool.
How to Vacuum an Inground Pool?
You need to take care of a few pre-vacuuming prep steps such as purging and system assembly. Then by making the necessary connections (understanding it as well) and choosing the right filter settings one vacuums the whole inground pool following a few techniques.
At least once a week, you should spend some time giving the inground pool a good vacuuming session. Let’s give you a complete insight into the entire process.
Take Care of All Pre-Vacuuming Preps
The vacuum components have air that needs to be purged before you start the vacuuming. Otherwise, the air pockets would be there to ruin the intake line, which belongs to the pump of your pool. And that will basically lead to prime loss.
You also need to assemble the system. Just follow these steps:
- Attach the head of the vacuum to a telescoping pole.
- The outlet will have one end of the hose attached to it. The one on the vacuum head.
- Get the head towards the pool bottom.
- Then let the remaining hose portion push below the surface.
- Fill the hose with water. Then make sure the open end sits underwater. So that air can never get into the hose.
Understanding Connections to Make It
The pool circulation pump is the part that allows the vacuum to derive the force it needs. It resides in a recessed pit, adjacent to the pool.
The water comes from the inlet of the skimmer once suction action is provided by the pump. And then the water gets pumped through the filter to go back using return lines into the pool.
The lid and strainer basket of the skimmer shall come out next. And then, you need to thread the hose within the inlet of the skimmer. Meanwhile, the open end remains submerged. It later gets plugged into the skimmer bottom’s suction port.
In this case, the configuration makes the vacuum force diverted through the hose. And hose to the pool bottom vacuum head. This is the main concept of vacuuming a pool using a skimmer.
Now if you need to incorporate more than just one skimmer, do this. Plug the vacuum hose into the nearest located pool skimmer. So that maximum vacuum force can be achieved.
In some cases, you might have to deal with a plumbing style of pool that includes dedicated intake valves for each skimmer. You should block all the other skimmer-leading valves during vacuuming.
Also read: How to Use a Garden Hose as a Pool Vac
Choosing The Right Filter Settings
The decision to pick the right filter setting is also important when you are dealing with an inground pool. And often smaller residential ones would have filter systems consisting of two positions. One supports the pull-pull valve. And these won’t allow you to waste.
Then there are the 6 or 7 settings offering multiport filter valves. Not just that, there are even two alternatives to vacuuming with this.
Choosing the suitable multiport filter valve, however, depends on a big factor. The gunk quantity in the in-ground pool. Here’s some help on that:
- Valve set to the standard filter will work best for vacuuming water along with debris into the filter of the pool and recirculating the water back to the pool.
- If there’s a routine amount of dirt and dust to deal with on the pool bottom, then Filter setting with the pool filter being backwashed of getting rid of trapped debris in the filter.
- For a pool with a lot of gunk load, a waste setting is preferable. The setting would divert all the vacuumed water and debris toward the waste line into the sewer by bypassing the filter.
Keep In Mind – your filter can be overloaded with live algae in high quantities or water-clearing chemical substances. Save it from that by choosing the waste filter.
The Vacuuming Technique
There’s nothing new with how you should be vacuuming a pool, the same old way. But it’ll be better if you can mind these suggestions during the process:
- The vacuuming motion should be similar to when you mow a yard. The head should be rolling in rows, back and forth, across the bottom of the pool.
- The pool’s deep end is where you should start the vacuuming process. Finish it near the shallow end.
- You don’t want to stir the debris and create clouds in the water. It’ll make it super hard to have a clear view of what’s happening down there. To avoid these clouds, try to roll your head as slow as possible.
- Sometimes the head gets stuck in the pool. You just need to turn the pool pump off for a moment. And this will interfere with vacuum force and allow you to release the stuck head.
- You’ll find huge leaves and sticks gathering the strainer basket of pumps. And this will reduce the force of vacuum. Make sure to stop in between and clear the strainer multiple times.
- The filter setting vacuuming needs you to monitor the pressure gauge. Take a break and keep checking to make sure you don’t exceed the manufacturer-specified maximum pressure.
Finishing Up
Now you know a systematic approach to vacuuming an inground pool and getting the maximum good result. After you finish cleaning the pool, be sure to add chemicals to adjust the pH level and balance the chlorine amount.
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