How To Vacuum An Inground Pool (Easy Step-By-Step Guide)

Have you purchased an inground pool for you and your family to use during the summer?

If so, then you have a few things that you need to do to maintain it so that it will last and you can keep swimming and enjoying it for the rest of the summer months and throughout the rest of the year. 

One of the  most important ways to clean your pool is to vacuum it regularly . But what do you do if you don’t know how to do this?

Well, though it might sound similar to cleaning the carpets in your home, it is a bit different. So, we will go over how to vacuum an inground pool so that you can keep using it whenever you want to.

How do you Vacuum an Inground Pool? 

Although the main filter in a pool will help clean the small pieces of leaves and particles out of the pool, the dirt and debris that settles on the bottom of the pool will need to be swept away as well. A regular filter will not be able to handle this type of debris, so vacuuming the floor will be your best bet. 

Here is how you do it: 

Step 1: Get the Right Equipment 

You will first need to purchase a pool vacuum to be able to start, and you need to find the right size for the system that you have. The vacuum will fit onto the pump that gives power to the filter. There is a standard size that fits most inground pools, but you will want to measure just to make sure. 

Step 2: Set the Filter to Waste  

When you have a large amount of dirt at the bottom of the pool, you want to ensure that all of it is cleaned out. If you have the filter set on Filter, then the dirt the vacuum sucks up will circle back into the pool. That undoes all the work you just did, so change the setting to waste so that it takes the dirt to the sewer line directly. 

Step 3: Learn the Technique 

Vacuuming a pool can be a bit tough when you don’t know what to do. This can make you work too fast and kick up the dirt that you should be picking up. So, learn to work slowly and use back and forth strokes across the pool to vacuum properly. 

This will stop the debris from getting kicked up off the floor and allows you to see when all the dirt has been picked up. You also want to begin at the deepest end of the pool. It will be a bit harder to vacuum in the deeper area, so the process will get easier as you go. 

Step 4: Go Over Soiled Areas 

Doing this for the first time, you will probably see that not all of the dirt was picked up on the first run. So, if you still see that parts of the pool floor are still dirty, then you can switch the filter setting to Filter, which will allow you to go back over those areas just to get the rest of the dirt. 

This area won’t have nearly as much as before, so you can use this setting to catch the dirt and particles in the strainer so that you can easily dispose of it. 

While you are doing this second run to clean the pool,  you should vacuum in small circles at a slow speed . This will allow you to pick up the leftover dirt in a certain area without needing to back to vacuum the entire pool. Just remember that you should work at a very slow speed to stop the vacuum from kicking up any dirt. 

Step 5: Clean Out the Vacuum and Strainer 

Once you are done vacuuming,  you will want to turn off the pump and detach the head . You will want to take the hose of the vacuum that goes into the pool and allow any water inside of it to drain out. There shouldn’t be a lot of water in it, but there will typically be a little bit. 

You don’t want pool water, especially with chlorine, to damage the hose by sitting in it. Then, you want to dump out the waste collected in the pump strainer. This is mostly just dirt and leaves, so you will likely be able to toss the waste in the yard without any issues.

Step 6: Return to Original Setting and Water Level 

If you didn’t have to use the Filter setting, and you stayed with the Waste setting, then you will need to set it back to the initial setting. This will allow the pump to start and filter the pool as needed for small dirt particles. 

You will also need to  add some water to the pool to raise it to the original water level . You can do this by leaving the gardening hose in the pool for an hour or so, or however long it takes to raise it to the water level you started with. 

Step 7: Add Chlorine 

If you routinely add chlorine to your pool to keep it clean, then after you have added the freshwater, you should test the pool water. Then, add the amount of chlorine needed. 

Conclusion 

Although there are seven different steps to follow in this article, this process doesn’t take a long time. The first time you do this, you might end up taking longer than expected, but it will get easier the more you do it. 

Vacuuming your inground pool keeps it clean enough for people to swim safely, so you want to know how to do it right. You can always come back to this article when you need a refresher on how to vacuum an inground pool.