Amount of air in pump bucket

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D

drow

0
Jun 18, 2010
11
Sewickley, PA
Here's a simple question I haven't been able to get a straight answer to: how much air, if any, is OK in the pump chamber? Mine fills up to just below the level of the suction line. So there's a pretty big air bubble. 3" or 4" high. Water splashes around while it's pumping.

If the answer is "there shouldn't be any", does this always mean the leak is on the suction side? Or could it be on the far side of the pump?

The pump is primed, the filter is filtering, water is flowing OK. There's only the one 1 1/2" hose from the skimmer basket to the pump, and I can't feel any leaks, and it doesn't drip anywhere when I shut off the pump. I haven't tried spraying it with water yet, though. I opened the pump and relubed the O-ring just to be sure there wasn't a leak there; the O-ring looks fine.
 
drow, that much air means a pretty significant suction side leak. A pressure side leak would squirt out water, not suck in air. The good news is, there are very few places to look with an AGP! Is there a whirlpool in your skimmer? If not, the leak is at either end of the hose (loose/cracked connection), or perhaps in the hose itself.
 
Melt In The Sun said:
drow, that much air means a pretty significant suction side leak. A pressure side leak would squirt out water, not suck in air. The good news is, there are very few places to look with an AGP! Is there a whirlpool in your skimmer? If not, the leak is at either end of the hose (loose/cracked connection), or perhaps in the hose itself.
Click to expand...

There used to be a whirlpool, I don't think there is any more after I put in a weir and raised the water level a bit - previous owner left no weir. I can't find any leaks on the hose... I'll try again!
 
Here's the weird part. The bubble shrinks and grows independent of anything I do. It was big earlier, when I went out just now to check, it was more like an inch and a half and well above the suction intake. The only thing I can think of that happened since then was I put chlorine tablets in the skimmer basket. If it's air being sucked in through the skimmer, maybe that would reduce the amount of air intake. I can't see why it would be sucking air through there, though, everything looks right!

Spraying with water to check for leaks didn't help at all. Is there another way to find the leak, if there is one?
 
Welcome to TFP!!

PUCKS IN THE SKIMMER IS A BIG NO- NO!!!!!! Spend ~$5 on a floater if you have to use pucks, but don't put them in the skimmer!

How's the filter pressure when it has a big air bubble v.s. a small one?

Take the puck out and see how it does (some AG skimmer baskets are almost on the suction port, you might be obstructing it).
 
Thanks for the replies!

I've got a weir now, took care of that last week. Guess I'll get a floater. I may end up switching to something else than tablets, but I'm still waiting for my test kit to show up before I try doing it with straight bleach.

The filter pressure and air bubble seem to be the same with and without the tablets.

Do I just open the pump lid, wait until it starts overflowing, and press the lid back on? It's not easy with the pump below the waterline...
 
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