Cleaning Out Lots Of Dirt In The Pool
by Bruce Corbett
(Simsbury CT)
We were away on vacation and our pool was vandalized when we were gone. Somebody threw a bunch of potted plants in the pool.
There may be up to 10-15 gallons of potting soil on the bottom of the pool. Is this too much dirt to vacuum out of the pool?
Thank you for the question Bruce
I understand how frustrating it is when you have a filthy pool from vandalism. I've taken care of a bunch of them and it can be a real pain. First you will need to carefully scoop out as much debris as you can. Get a good leaf rake, not a blue square skimmer.
Go slowly because you're going to have dirt and debris floating around and you'll want to minimize that. The question says that there's 10 - 15 gallons of dirt in the pool. I would suggest that you vacuum to "WASTE" if you can.
The dirty pool water will bypass the filter and go straight into the sewer. But be careful and keep an eye on the water level. You'll want to keep it topped off, and no less than 1/3 up from the bottom of the skimmer. Anything less and the system will draw in air and that will reduce the suction of the vacuum.
If you do vacuum to "FILTER", you'll be backwashing every 5 minutes or so while vacuuming. Hope this helps and have a great rest of the Summer
Robert