pump basket emptys please help me troubleshoot

Jump to latest Follow Reply
J

Johnny B

0
LifeTime Supporter
Mar 19, 2009
591
Charlotte, NC
Pump sounds good but basket has no water in it .
Pretty sure I got lucky & happened to catch it before it burned out, but maybe not, maybe she 's cooked because the pump ran with an empty basket for too long? Moto didn't feel hot, sounds ok, kind of "starts" ok (see below).
I noticed more air in the basket for last 2 weeks & I assumed it was a loose lid, finally got around to tapping the lid a little tighter then maybe 2 days later noticed this; maybe unrelated.

Here's the procedure & symptom(s) etc:
- I fill the basket with the garden hose until it overflows (happens way sooner than I am used too, curious, used to take longer & it'd start to "lower/drain" immediately so I'd hustle to seal it up & start the pump & even though the basket would be almost empty by the time the pump started it would soon draw the water to fill it; so curious, as if the "system is more closed than normal")
- seal up the basket with the lid,
- turn on pump,
- sounds great/normal,
- see the typical action in the basket,
- some air expels out the Returns (normal for me, but now I'd say it's a bit more air than the usual),
- then the basket empties in about 5-10 seconds after turning on the pump, as though the pump cannot suck water into the basket.
- I quick turn pump off to avoid overheating/destroying the motor; maybe she 's cooked because the pump ran with an empty basket for too long? But sounds ok, kind of "starts" ok
- there has been no change of the jandy valve, is set to draw from both skimmer & drain evenly
- I run the cleaner PoolSkim routinely but hadn't for maybe 1 week prior to this; I have not tried troubleshooting this issue via fiddling with the pool cleaner.
- I have not tried troubleshooting this issue in any way, just noticed last night at sundown

I must go to work now but when I come back online tonight I'll reply to your posts & of course I’ll search the site for similar posts, but if anyone has any good links that'll help me troubleshoot, that is appreciated.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
K, you don't need to fill to brim and be quick with the lid. Just fill til it gets up to the height it stays at, and relax, lube the o-ring, put the basket lid on and go to next step.

How long did it run for when it wasn't primed? 1 hour, 10 hours?

Did you say the suction line fills faster than it used to? That sounds like a blockage in the suction line. Clearing it would be the cure.

Hopefully some others notice my bump. :)
 
You mention no change in settings to the Jandy valve. Maybe you should adjust it to try pulling water from just the skimmer then the main drain to see if there's any noticeable difference in water pull to the pump basket. Perhaps you have a bit of a blockage somewhere.
 
First let me ease your mind a bit on the worry about burning up the pump. I've spoken to many a motor guru and the motors can actually run forever w/o water. The damage results in the mechanical seal (2 piece carbon and ceramic) they'll build up a ton of heat w/o water to keep them cool. I've some awesome pictures of what happens when the thermal overload fails on a booster pump (spoiler alert, burnt down the filter and 4 pumps on the equipment pad). In other words, it's okay to let the pump run several minutes w/o water flowing to troubleshoot.

Okay onto your issue now, first you can try to prime the pump with your backwash valve on recirculate, sometimes that can help. Next, if you have multiple lines on the suction manifold (main drain, skimmers etc...) Shut all valves and only prime one line at a time if possible. You do this by only opening one valve at a time till the pump pulls all the air out of it. If you have to shut the pump off to refill with water be sure to shut all valves before turning off so as to keep the progress you've done and not allow the air to enter the line and push the water back down again.

GL!
 
First let me say thank you to everyone who took the time to post.
So far, it seems to be my lucky day.
I read your suggestions. I filled the basket with water and then turned the pump on and moved the Jandy valve to drain only/ skimmer off. It took about 1-2 minutes before the basket had a decent/acceptable amount of water but still had more air than we like. I let it continue to run like this, drain only, for about another three minutes, same amount of air unfortunately but it would certainly work long-term is my guess. The pressure was about 19 psi, normal for me is about 22 psi right now).
Leaving the pump running, I turned the valve to also include the skimmer. A little bit of turbulence and within probably 20 seconds the basket filled more with water/had less air in it to the level about all I ever have gotten so normal for me.
I checked everything again about 20 minutes later, everything seems the same.
I turned on the cleaner/pool skim for about 10 minutes, everything seemed normal, turned off the cleaner and everything still seemed normal. Actually maybe there was even less air in the basket than is "normal" for me, so that is welcomed.
My "never lube Jandy" valve does not allow me to have "skimmer only/drain off"; it runs into a stop that I assume I am not supposed to try to overcome by depressing the lever and jumping over that stop? I never knew that until now. I have always run the pump on "even between skimmer and drain" unless I am closing for the winter or some other occasional minor issue.
The skimmer seems to be functioning with the normal amount of suction etc.
Do you guys want me to go overcome the stop on the valve so that I can run "skimmer only/drain off, as I say I don't think I'm supposed to go past that stop?

I did not see anything inside the basket that would indicate the clogged item was knocked out. So do you guys think there was no clog?
I think it was a prime/priming issue? What would cause that? As mentioned in my original post, I have noticed a lot more air than I would like to see in the pump basket. What would cause that? If I see it again, what would you like me to try to get rid of it? This same procedure of "drain only/ skimmer off

Thanks again for your help and feel free to comment about anything else you think I should know.
 
My valve had that stop as well. I cut mine off. :p I'm not telling you to, just that I needed to move my valve all the way around. If you can get over the stop just to test "skimmer only" I think it would be helpful in analyzing your suction issue. At least to rule it out so you can move forward.
 
Thanks Tex. Just take a hack saw cut off the stop I assume? I kind of thought that something internal would also be there to stop it but hopefully not.

Do any of you other bright guys out there think that it would be a mistake for me to cut off the stop? I can reason that there could be a situation where I would want the skimmer only, for example I have a clogged drain line and want to keep the pump going with the skimmer line.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply