How To Manually Vacuum A Pool

Gather the materials needed. This will include a telescopic pole, vacuum head, and vacuum hose.

*The pool pump should be turned on and running.

Connect the vacuum head to the telescopic pole.

In this video, we use a vacuum head with wheels for gunite and fiberglass pools. Vinyl lined pools would require a vacuum head without wheels. Vacuums for vinyl lined pools should have brushes on the bottom.

Find the end of the hose that swivels and attach that to the vacuum head.

Place the vacuum head into the pool near the skimmer.

Remove the skimmer lid and the skimmer basket. Set them to the side.

Take the opposite side of the hose (non-swivel cuff) and hold it to a return jet closest to the skimmer. The water will fill up the hose and force the air out. The vac head will start to rise while air is being forced out of the end of the hose. Once the air bubbles stop and the vac head drops to the floor, continue to the next step.

This step is required so that the pump is not flooded with air, causing it to lose prime.

Move the hose over to the skimmer door opening while keeping the hose underwater. Feed the hose through the opening and push it into the bottom hole. 

If there are two holes, place it into the one that is pulling water.

Take the vacuum to one end of the pool and begin to clean the bottom. Move the vacuum slowly while slightly overlapping the previously vacuumed area. Do this until the entire pool has been vacuumed.

Once the pool is clean, unplug the hose from the skimmer and remove the vacuum from the pool.

Reinstall the skimmer basket and skimmer lid.

There are a couple of things you can try if the vacuum is not getting enough suction. Try partially or completely closing the main drain line. This will increase the suction at the skimmer. Another option is to clean the filter. A dirty filter will restrict suction capabilities.

An air leak will also impact the vacuum suction. Check out our guide titled "How to Identify and Correct Low Water Pressure".

If you have more than a few leaves in the pool, we recommend using a vac plate on the skimmer basket or a leaf canister, This will prevent the leaves from clogging the pool plumbing.