Need help with no flow thru CareTaker?

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R

RandyR

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Aug 16, 2015
16
Casa Grande
Hi,

My name is Randy. I just joined and looking forward to enjoying the incredible information here!

I'm very mechanical and because I live in the Arizona desert I am very diligent about pool maintenance.

I did a quick research to see if I could find any posts on no water flow and a possible CareTaker issue, but I couldn't find anything referencing no flow through the CareTaker.

I have a 2007 10K gallon pebbletec pool with a water feature:

Jandy filter and pump, 1.5" 5 port CareTaker distributor, and pop ups. Also have a Jandy heat pump.

Problem: Pop ups are not coming up. When the Intermatic PE24AV valve is switched from water feature to clean, the flow in the pump completely stops and the pressure in the CareTaker gauge goes way up, the pressure valve on the filter canisiter goes way up. When switching the Intermatic valve back to Water Feature, the water flow appears normal, except there are no pop ups and the pressure gauge on the CareTaker is steady at about 20 PSI with no needle movement (no flow?). The pressure gauge on the filter canister is below normal, which about 30 PSI. There is water flow in the skimmer and over the water feature - just no pop ups.

I have cleaned the filters, taken the CareTake apart and checked for anything stopping the gears and impeller. I can't see anything that would cause it not to work.

My question is... can the CareTaker fail to function properly and completely stop the water flow thru it and thereby not pressurizing the pop ups?

Could any other system areas cause this condition?

Any help or suggestions will be very much appreciated.

Thank you.

Randy
 
There's nothing in the distributor that should completely stop the water from flowing. The gearset isn't stuck between zones is it?
Did you check for pluggage in the lines when you had the gearset out?
Did you manually spin the gearset when you had the cover off.
 
Hi Bama,

Thank you for your quick reply.

Yes, the gearset in the Caretaker seems to move freely, not stuck anywhere. I didn't think it could completely stop the pressure flow - but not sure. When you say check pluggage are you referring to the 5 pipes to the pop ups when the Caretaker is removed? My next move was going to take a water hose and stick it into each pipe at the CareTaker pipes and see if I could see anything. I was going to remove all of the pop ups so see if anything flows out from the water hose pressure. Is that worth a try?

Thanks again for your help!

Randy
 
OK I removed the Caretaker coupler. I noticed the distributor was full of water. It started to bubble as water slowly leaked through the bottom rubber valves. I don't know if that is normal or not. But the water out of it was slow enough that I can see how the flow when the pump is on and the value is switched to "clean" that it would be enough to cause the increased pressure and not be enough to push up the pop ups. I then removed 1 section of the pop ups that I know are on the same circuit. I stuck the water hose into each port at the distributor until I notice water coming out of the 4 pipes. I can assume that there is no blockage and the hose pressure is just not enough to activate a pop up.

After doing all that, I believe the distributor gearset and little rubber valves must be somehow blocking enough flow that the pop ups are not seeing adequate pressure. Again, I'm not sure how it can do that, but I will call Polaris tomorrow and see one of their technical people can explain it to me. If I can get some kind of confirmation on my thinking, I can order the replacement set for the Caretaker and be back in business in a couple days!!

Any more input or comments from anyone else will be very much appreciated.

Thank you.

Randy
 
It takes a good bit of pressure to operate the heads so that's not unusual.
I was more concerned about the piping from the pump to the distributor being plugged than each line to the zones. Did you check that?
 
Hi Bama,

Yes, I checked the flow from one of 5 pipes under the Caretaker. I used my garden hose and could see clean water flowing from the 4 pipes in that circuit that connect to the pop ups I had removed.

I have since received a reply from my pool equipment supplier. The Caretaker, if the valves have failed, will fail closed - one or more. This will, in fact, cause the spike in flow pressure that I see in the Caretaker gauge and the water pressure gauge on the filter canister. So.... I will order the Caretaker rebuild kit tomorrow. The last Caretaker 99 rebuild kit I installed was 3 years ago.

Thank you very much for your help. I'm looking forward enjoying this site. It seems the number posts is overwhelming.

I will be happy to report back once I get the rebuild kit installed in my Caretaker 99, to hopefully *fingers crossed* find that is what the problem was.

Randy
 
OK, I just installed the rebuild kit for the Caretaker 99 (originally installed in May 2007 - rebuild kit installed 3 years ago).

Everything works perfectly.

Conclusion: If the piston valves inside the Caretaker collapse, they fail closed. This will stop the water flow to the pop ups, and spike the pressure on pressure gauge on the Caretaker and the pressure gauge on the filter canister. I saw no flow of water in the pump.

I'm curious why all 5 pistons failed at the same time. I'm going to do some research on the "mean time to failure" and what causes the piston to fail? Old age, or is there a chemical in the water that negatively effects the properties of whatever the pliable rubbery looking material is inside the piston?

If I find out anything, I'll report it here for anyone that may be interested.

Randy
 
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