Low suction on pool shark cleaner

[Mark1983]

Hi everyone
We bought a house with a pool a few months ago and it’s my first time owning one so I’m learning on the fly.
For a while now the cleaner head has been hit and miss when it comes to the speed that it moves along the floor. I constantly remove all the leaves from the skimmer box basket even though there’s not many in it iv cleaned out the pump basket but the one iv found to be effective is the cartridge filter and this is where my question really comes . The pool shop have inspected the head nothing wrong say it’s a good head they said take the filter cartridge out and try running it, when I did that the suction was awsome the cleaner was going up and down the walls like a bat out of heck. So he said acid wash it as that’s the problem, so I acid soaked it for 24hrs to be honest I clean it with a hose regularly to try maintain suction the filter looked white befor acid bath after the bath head worked quite well now a week and a half later the head is like a snail again it’s so frustrating. Do you think the cartridge needs replacing even though the filter part looks white the top and bottom rubber says it could be older than I think but only just buying the house I don’t know exactly how old it is. Is there something else I’m missing any help appreciated thanks

 

[1poolman1]

Hi everyone
We bought a house with a pool a few months ago and it’s my first time owning one so I’m learning on the fly.
For a while now the cleaner head has been hit and miss when it comes to the speed that it moves along the floor. I constantly remove all the leaves from the skimmer box basket even though there’s not many in it iv cleaned out the pump basket but the one iv found to be effective is the cartridge filter and this is where my question really comes . The pool shop have inspected the head nothing wrong say it’s a good head they said take the filter cartridge out and try running it, when I did that the suction was awsome the cleaner was going up and down the walls like a bat out of heck. So he said acid wash it as that’s the problem, so I acid soaked it for 24hrs to be honest I clean it with a hose regularly to try maintain suction the filter looked white befor acid bath after the bath head worked quite well now a week and a half later the head is like a snail again it’s so frustrating. Do you think the cartridge needs replacing even though the filter part looks white the top and bottom rubber says it could be older than I think but only just buying the house I don’t know exactly how old it is. Is there something else I’m missing any help appreciated thanks

By removing the cartridge and running the system, you isolated the problem to the cartridge, that's the good news.
Sorry, but acid washing a filter cartridge before removing oils is the worst thing you could have done. A pool that has a large leaf load will also have a lot of oils in the water as the leaves decompose. When acid is applied to those oils that are in the cartridge media, a film that is very hard and can't be removed is formed. It is new cartridge time.
Note this from one manufacturer:
WARNING: Failure to remove all oils and cleaning solution before acid soaking will result in a permanent restriction of water flow and cause premature cartridge failure.

Unicel - Clearly the Best - Unicel is the nation's leading manufacturer of swimming pool filter replacement cartridges. Finding the exact filter cartridge you need is easy.

www.unicelfilters.com