Just bought a house with a spa, and as this is our first spa, we're having some issues...

The original owner didn't leave any paperwork for the spa, so I downloaded the owner's manual from the coleman website. in the maintenace section, it says to turn pump off, then remove the filter basket...

this is where i get stumped. i can't figure out how to turn the pump off.
i tried turning it off at the circuit breaker, and as far as i could tell, the spa was off...at least the lcd screen was (jerky owner didn't label the breakers). but when i tried to remove the filter basket, i couldn't because there was still suction holding the basket down.

can anyone please advise what i'm missing. thanks.

You're doing something wrong then.

If the display is off, then your power is off and there should be no suction. Take a close look at your configuration to ensure you're trying to do this the right way.

You might want to post a photo of your 'filter basket'

i guess i wasn't pulling hard enough. i turned the power off again i was able to pull the basket up and get the filter cartridge. it was just much harder than i expected it to be. I'm used the filter basket in my parents pool, which is easy to pull out regardless of whether the pump is running...but then again, its not directly connected to the filter like this.

thanks for the help.