How To Vacuum A Swimming Pool

Your pool, just like everything else in life, gets a little bit dirty every now and then. When that time comes, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work so that you pool will be as clean as the first day it was filled.

Why do you need to learn how to vacuum a pool manually?

• If you don’t own an automatic pool cleaner
• If there is a major problem that can’t be solved with an automatic pool cleaner, such as algae
• It’s much cheaper than hiring someone to do it for you, but Nerja Pools are here if you need us.
• It’s great exercise (yeah, we tell ourselves that a lot of the time)

Equipment you’ll need to vacuum your pool manually:

You’ll need a few things for you to be able to vacuum your pool manually.

• A Flexible Vacuum Head
• A Telescopic Pool Pole
• A Flexible Pool Hose
• A Vacuum Plate

Step-by-step manual pool vacuuming guide

NOTE: Bubbles will come up from the vacuum head on the floor of the pool. Once the bubbles stop, all the air is out of the hose.

This will create suction from the vacuum head, through the hose, into the skimmer and through the filter system. Now, it’s time to vacuum the pool.

NOTE: If suction is lost, repeat steps 4 and 5.

Vacuuming your pool

• Start at the shallow end of the pool and work your way towards the deep end.
• Use long, slow, and sweeping strokes while vacuuming.
• Slightly overlap each stroke as not to leave any dirt and debris at the edges of your sweep.

Keep it slow and steady

Rushing will kick up debris, which will reduce visibility and take hours to settle down again, making the process of vacuuming your pool longer than it needs to be. If there’s a lot of debris, you’ll likely kick up a cloud of debris no matter how careful you are, but there’s no need to make more work for yourself by hurrying.

If the water does become cloudy, give it a couple of hours to resettle, then come back and vacuum again, repeating as necessary. If the vacuum head becomes stuck, switch off the pump for a second to break the vacuum force and set it free

Does it sound like a lot of work? Yes it is. It’s usually around this part that people will start asking if there’s a better way to vacuum the pool, and the answer is yes. We have a whole range of automatic and robotic pool cleaning options, please contact us for more information.

After vacuuming your pool

Did you think we were done? Vacuuming is only half the battle. There’s more to be done after the initial vacuuming stage.

When you’ve finished cleaning your pool, remove the vacuum head from the telescopic pole, and drain any water left in the vacuum hose. Attach your cleaning brush to the pole and use it to scrub away any algae, dirt and debris from the sides of the pool.

Clear any debris in your pump strainer basket and give the sand filter a final backwash if you have a multiport system and have used the ‘Filter’ setting. If you have a cartridge filter, take your filter element out and give it a good hose down.

If you used the ‘Waste’ setting to vacuum the pool, make sure you switch the valve back to the ‘Filter’ setting and keep adding fresh water to your pool until the water level is restored.

Rinse all your equipment with fresh water, dry it and return it to storage. This will help keep it in top working condition and avoid unnecessary wear or corrosion.

Nerja Pools offer a pool cleaning service, please contact us for more details.