How to vacuum to waste with no multiport valve?

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RunningMeg

Member
Jun 18, 2022
19
Pennsylvania
Greetings!

I am new to this forum and new to pool ownership. So far, it's been a wild ride!

Current situation: Late Thursday night, a huge storm blew all sorts of runoff and debris into my pool. I skimmed the big stuff out but the water was murky and brown, There was dirt on the pool floor and very small particles everywhere that couldn't get skimmed up. I vacuumed a bit, and then through my research, decided to flocc. I followed the directions on the bottle of flocc and viola this morning my pool looks MUCH better.

However... now it's time to vacuum to waste but I don't think I have a multiport valve!

I'm attaching pictures in hopes someone can help this newbie correctly vacuum my pool after floccing. Thank you so much for any insight you can give!
-Megan
 

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Welcome to TroubleFreePool! And I'm sorry for the situation you're in... you definitely don't want that stuff to get into your filter, which is why flocculants are almost never recommended here. The first thing I'd do is turn off your pump to make sure none gets in there.

Unfortunately, there are only really three options: vacuum to the filter and end up needing to replace the sand, install a 3 way valve and vacuum to waste, or rent a trash pump to vacuum the pool with.
 
Endro32 said:
Welcome to TroubleFreePool! And I'm sorry for the situation you're in... you definitely don't want that stuff to get into your filter, which is why flocculants are almost never recommended here. The first thing I'd do is turn off your pump to make sure none gets in there.

Unfortunately, there are only really three options: vacuum to the filter and end up needing to replace the sand, install a 3 way valve and vacuum to waste, or rent a trash pump to vacuum the pool with.
Click to expand...
Hello! Thanks for your insight. The filter has been off so that is good. It's not a sand filter though, cartridge. So same thing... Vaccuum to cartridge then replace? I will look into the trash pump thing too. Never heard of that but that's been the theme of the past two months... Learning!
 
That's a very small single cartridge filter and will clog pretty quickly. Better to avoid vacuuming to filter if you can.

Do you have any pool cleaner with its own dirt bag such as a Polaris or a robot? Or even a self-contained hand-held vac like a Pool Blaster Max would get the floc off the floor without sending it to the filter.
 
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Rocket J Squirrel said:
That's a very small single cartridge filter and will clog pretty quickly. Better to avoid vacuuming to filter if you can.

Do you have any pool cleaner with its own dirt bag such as a Polaris or a robot? Or even a self-contained hand-held vac like a Pool Blaster Max would get the floc off the floor without sending it to the filter.
Click to expand...
I do have a robot! I have not used it yet. Maytronics Dolphin Proteus DX3. It looks like it has it's own filter???
 

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Yes, the robot has its own filter. I'm not familiar with that one, so the question is whether the filter is fine enough to trap the floc and the other debris sitting at the bottom. Looks like it has both a filter basket and a "net canister". Hopefully the net canister has a fine enough weave to capture your floc.
 

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You can undo the nipple and twist the pipe counter clockwise so it’s facing the fence it will just discharge the water out. You may be faced with a few obstacles though, you may lose prime or if the equipment is below the pool water will just rush out. You could also siphon vac if you have a hill nearby pool. Or just run it through your cartridge and clean it a bunch of times and maybe replace cartridge.

Flocculant - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Use the slam process next time
SLAM Process
 
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Poolbreh said:
View attachment 425345
You can undo the nipple and twist the pipe counter clockwise so it’s facing the fence it will just discharge the water out. You may be faced with a few obstacles though, you may lose prime or if the equipment is below the pool water will just rush out. You could also siphon vac if you have a hill nearby pool. Or just run it through your cartridge and clean it a bunch of times and maybe replace cartridge.

Flocculant - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Use the slam process next time
SLAM Process
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for that detailed info. I do have a hill so siphon vacc could be an option. I have two cartridges.... So you think I should just stick with one cartridge and clean it a bunch of times while vacuuming? Then at least I have the other one to use in the meantime and replace the one I used to vacc the flocc?
 
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