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Air Blowing out of Skimmer / Cloudy Water

14 years ago

Hi,

We installed an inground pool last summer. We opened it about two weeks ago and everything was fine for the first week or so (we live in Winnipeg, Canada, so we open pools in late May).

For the 1st week, we simply ran the pump to filter the water. Everything seemed fine, and the water was clear.

Last week, our pool guy come over and added chlorine to stabalize the water prior to adding the salt.

Ever since that day, the skimmer seems to be sucking up air ... we see tiny bubbles being blown back into the water (Aqua Genie skimmer). Our pump also draws from a floor drain ...

Today, our pool guy come over and replaced the rings and gaskets. He also lubed the O Ring in the Hayward pump. Everything seemed better for an hour or so ... then all the air came back!

Here is my concern. Is it possible that the air is being sucked up from under the pool (a broken pipe)??? If so, does that mean all the concrete surrounding the pool would need to be busted up to fix??

The reason I am thining that it can be an underground pipe problem is because our clear water is now cloudy ... perhaps it's sucking up air AND sediment which is making the water cloudy ...

Any advice?

Thanks!

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Comments (3)

dapooltec
14 years ago
Even if it was sucking up sediment the filter would still filter out the sediment and the water would still be clear. It does sound like you have some kind of leak on the suction side of the pump though.
mas985
14 years ago
Has the filter pressure changed much since last year or is it about the same? If it is lower, there could be a blockage in the suction line which is causing air to be sucked into the pump basket.

Can you isolate the suction such that it draws from the main drain only? If the bubbles go away, then there could be a problem with the skimmer line.

Air leaks can also occur in valves as well so another trick is to hold a running hose over the valve such that the seals are covered with water and see if the air goes away.
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I have done a ton spa systems lately with waterway jets ( I prefer the standard poly jets over the poly storm). You can typically do 7-8 waterway jets on a VS pump through the filtration system. I would use a seperate 2hp pump if you want a total of 16 jets. This way you will have multiple levels of jets, especially if you tie the jets together. There is very little to gain by having a variable speed jet pump. Don't use minijets for calf jets, you will regret it later, you can always turn down the jets if they are too strong using their internal shutoff. I like to tie the jet lines in with the filtration lines because when running on a low circulation speed, speed for the heater, the jets are less likely to draw in air which cools off the water. If you are not using the jets, you really don't want air drawn into them. To make all this work, you will have to install a check valve in the spa return line, as well as the jet return line to prevent backwards water flow through the systems. I would also consider using the waterway channel drains if you have space they are good for 316 gpm @3.9fps It will be easier to install, and will look alot cleaner than 3 individual round grates. There are 3 2 1/2" suctions fittings on the bottom of them which would be perfect for your system.
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houseful
14 years ago
I am having the same problem with air bubbles coming and going. This started about a month ago. My filter basket was cracked and replacing that seemed to help. But as of yesterday, after disassembling everything to clean the individual filters, I also now have DE coming out my returns when the pump first starts. It seems to stop once the filter has been running. We didn't notice any torn filters when hosing them. My pressure has dropped. It used to be consistently 18 with a newly cleaned filter. Now it's at about 10. With the DE coming out, my first thought was a torn filter, but with the other issues, it must be something else.

Before Leslie's tries to sell me a bunch of stuff I don't need, I am hoping for some troubleshooting advice from here first.

Thanks!

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