stevesainty

Hi all, I have a problem with my pool.

I vacuumed it as normal, then back washed as normal. Then I rinsed as I normally do; immediately the sight glass went a filthy brown colour so I carried on rinsing until it was clear.

There was some crystal residue left in the sight glass. When I turned around there were sand trails underneath where the jets are.

There was a gritty sound when I turned off the drain valve. I put the pump back into normal filtration mode and then flicked the switch to ensure everything was OK but it just hummed.

I immediately flicked it off and then isolated it so that it would not come on with the time switch.

Any ideas please?

Does it sound expensive?

snikpoh

OK - some answers.

Some times the pump 'gets stuck'. What you need to do is to carefully remove the plastic cover from the pump and free the fan by rotating it. Sometimes this is all you have to do and the pump will work fine when reassembled.

Are you sure it's sand in the pool? You can get an algae that looks very similar. Try hoovering the pool to waste, check the pH and chlorine levels and see if it reappears. If it does, and you are sure it's sand, then the filter tubes at the bottom of your filter may need changing.

To do this you need to completely empty the filter of sand to expose the filter pipes and replace them. When refilling, I recommend using new sand.

Hope some of this helps you.

Not a hard set of jobs and not expensive - unless you are not practical and have to call someone out!

Bri and Katee

Are you sure its sand? We've had one or two rain showers lately, that seems to carry a lot of that north african dust with it. Our pool is still blowing it through the filter even though I've added floculant and vacummed to waste.

Each time the pump goes on the water goes cloudy from the jets. Its annoying as I had just before the rain, paid the local water guy 460€ to refill the pool with fresh water. This was after I left the pump on timer after forgetting to switch the multi valve back from waste!

EMR

We had the same problem with what looked like sand but turned out to be dust and huge quantities of pollen from the pines behind our villa.

stevesainty

It is definitely sand. I had just vacuumed the pool clean. I went through all my usual cleaning routine.
Three brown plumes on the pool bottom under the jets, grating sound coming from the drain valve when turning on and off, and the pump suddenly humming and not pumping.
My best guess is something within the sand filter has failed allowing the filter sand into the pool and its associated pipework.

Mitzyboy

I know you're going to tell me to pee off ..... but this happened to me once. It was because one of the three levers had not been engaged to where it should have been properly so it promptly added a bit of sand to my pool. After a vacuum it was fine :-)

stevesainty

Thank you all for your input.

I am fairly certain that it is a filter problem, all the valves were in the correct position and it is definitely sand coming out of the jets. There are brown plumes on the bottom of the pool underneath the jets.

I will call a pool repair company tomorrow.

Mitzyboy

Oh, OK .... it was sand that came out for me iirc ... it was almost like a backwash into the pool. Made a horrible mess The lever was only slightly out of line. I never did it again

tony

Our friend had that problem , last week , it was the filter , when the sand was removed there are a series of plastic strainers ( look a bit like hair curlers ) some had broken off allowing sand to enter the pool

Replacement filter fixed it ( if you are re using the valve ensure the new filter has the same centres)
Cheers Tony

snikpoh

You really don't need to replace the entire filter. See post #2 - just replace the "plastic strainers".

dypcdiver

Here is an Astral filter showing the spider that is probably at fault, as you can see all the parts are replaceable.


http://pdbdocs.astralpool.com/recamb...2014-07-10.pdf

dypcdiver

http://pdbdocs.astralpool.com/recambios/KIT10_20128_filtro_cantabric_AP_v02_2014-07-10.pdf[/URL]

tony

I know that is sometimes the case but that particular one was beyond repair

Cheers Tony

wilsman77

OMG sounds like having your own Pool is a complete nightmare! imagine getting a mouthful of African dust/sand/algae/Pollen when you dive in!

stevesainty

snikpoh and Tony were spot on, it was a broken lateral inside the sand filter. A professional pool maintenance man I know came round and replaced it for me so I got to see how it was done for future reference. I was a bit apprehensive to dive in and do it myself even though snikpoh assured me that it was not rocket science.
The good news was that it was only one lateral, the rest were sound, and he inspected the sand and said that it did not need replacing.
The very good news was that he would not take any payment, not even a tenner to have a drink.
Thank you all for your advice, pool maintenance should not be daunting if you follow a few simple rules and test the water before adjusting the chemicals.

Oh and by the way, he did take the plastic cover off the end of the pump and spun it manually to clear the sand that was preventing the pump from spinning when switched on.