My pressure or psi has droped for some reason its a hayward new 1 hp pump about a year it should be running at about 10 psi I know when the psi rises I need to backwash as I have a had a pool now for about 9 yrs so I do know the problems ,but this one is different? I checked water level that is fine ,cleaned out the trap in the pump itself as it had leafs and bugs as I live out in the country.but still the pump is only running at half.. it sounds fine its not hot ,I leave it it running queit a bit ? please any advice .....thanks

1. Something is stopping the seal at the basket
2. The hose going to the filter housing is partially clogged or not sealed
3. If you have a 2nd filter basket before filter housing, clogged/not sealed
4. Filter is clogged and needs to be cleaned, not just dirt, but degreased
5. Leaking pressure valve if one is used

I had a large filter and regular pressure was well above 5 psi, (8 to 10psi) with everything cleaned and running, once vacuum hose was connected it jumped to 14 to 18 psi.

Thank you for posting your question here on Fixya.com.

High pressure at the filter means the water is held up and not able to freely flow thru, hence the rise in pressure. If repeated bumps and refills are not working your filter fabric is clogged. You can try to wash them (again I assume) and if necessary even try acid washing as well. If none of these works you'll need to replace the fabric or the entire assemblies which is usually near the price of just replacing the filter.

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John

The actual pressure depends on how clean the sand is, how well the pump is pumping, how clean the skimmer and pump baskets are. The rule of thumb would be when the filter pressure raises 8-10 psi above whatever the pressure was when you first started the filter with clean sand, clean baskets, good pump, When it reaches the 8-10 psi, it's time to backfulsh. A low pressue, with adequate return flow is what you really want. See Hayward's web site for a manual. http://www.haywardnet.com/inground/products/manuals.cfm

Certainly sounds like a filter problem. Here's a couple of things to try.#1. i don't know how you cleaned the filters but clean them again with a good filter cleaner/degreaser.#2. After a good cleaning, get a bucket large enough to hold the filter fingers in and give them an acid bath. They recommend a 20 to 1 ratio of water to acid (muriatic) but I personally don' think thats strong enough. Use a good amount of acid and let the fingers soak for a good ten or fifteen minutes. (always add acid to water, not water to acid) Rinse and reassemble filter. If that does'nt solve problem, I think it's time to replace filter.

lower the better (psi) this means the water is flowing fast through the filter, high pressures means it's time to clean filter again. keep cleaning until the pool is squeaky clean, then you can go back to cleaning once a week
Jay the pool pump motor repair guy Longwood Florida

You have a clogged impeller

Your sand needs to be changed as it is clogged up with crud

the psi range is normal and will fluctuate with the cleaniness of the filter. Depending on wether or not you have a Sand filter or an Earth Filter, you should periodically backwash(for sand) and "bump" for the earth filters. You will notice that the psi will lower back down to the lower psi range. This indicates that your water is flowing freely with little resistance.

BACK WASHING SHOULD BE DONE WHEN PRESSURE RISES 8 TO 10 PRESSURE PIONTS FROM WHERE YOU RUN REGULAR AFTER BACKWAH BE SURE TO ADD DE 3 TO 5 YEARS