My Pool Sucks & How We Fixed It

The pool was looking lovely and warming up enough to swim in but then............. it starting making a gurgling noise, then air was bubbling up from the return vents and the water started to look cloudy. That can't be right. So I checked the control box which had the no flow light illuminated. So as instructed I did a backwash and rinse and oh no this made things worse. Now there is no flow at all and the pump in sucking air not water. Not a good thing I can tell you. Now I'll have to ring the pool handover guy for some advice, hopefully it is something we can fix over the phone and then once up and running the pool will need to run for 24+hours to get it clean and balanced again. Oh hum there goes my relaxing Saturday morning.

GLUG

OK now being the determined logical person I am I wanted to fix the pool myself so logic says if there is air in the filter I need to force water in and push the air out. Makes sense. But where and how to force the water in? Firstly I tried directly in the pump skimmer but this seemed to be forcing air in too. Think ,think think and thanks to the magic of Google I found a piece on how the pool professionals put a hose with and inflating balloon like cuff up the pipe from the pool skimmer box to force the water through. Now I don't have an inflatable cuff but the article then went on to suggest jamming a thick sock around the end of the hose to create a seal. So one hose pipe, two towels for kneeling on, one pair of sports socks, two adults, a child, lots of on off with the tap and repositioning, half and hour and very aching arms later the pool is fixed. Hooray.... I love it when a plan comes together.
I've reconnected the pool cleaner, put the chlorinator up higher and left the pool to run for the next 24 hours. fantastic. My pool no longer sucks - well it does but in the right way this time.