OK, I am embarrassed to say I pulled my first (probably not last) bonehead move on my less than a month old Hayward Variable Speed Tristar Pump. So yesterday I cleaned the pump housing basket, and I had completely shut off the Jandy valve at the intake. My thought was because it is much easier to prime, since no water is lost. It typically takes a long time to prime, if I don't shut that valve. Well, needless to say, I left it off, and last night my scheduled cleaning of 11PM to 5AM I would assume, "tried" to run. When I went out at 5:15AM to check for freezing because 25 degrees out, the freeze protection was "trying" to run at 40%. the pump housing was empty. I saw the valve, and opened it, and it primed up and ran, BUT....how much damage did I "probably" do? Is there anything I need to check, or did I just take many years off the life of the pump. Is there some sort of sensor that may have shut it down? (please,please,please). So again, seems to not have fried it right now, because I bumped it up to full speed, and ran everything, but don't know about longterm damage. And no, I will never shut that valve again, that's why I'm sure thay put that stop ridge on the valve to begin with, not to be overridden!!!
I'm a bonehead, Hayward VS Tristar
- Thread starter EJMAMMO
- Start date
Leaving a pump running without any water flowing can cause serious damage, but doesn't always. If the pump is running now and there aren't any leaks or strange noises and if you can still take off and put back on the pump strainer basket lid then you are probably just fine.
You should be fine. Water is the coolant more so than the lubricant, and it doesn't sound like you needed it to be cooled last night!
I wouldn't make a practice of doing that (
), but you probably escaped this time.
I wouldn't make a practice of doing that (
), but you probably escaped this time.Thanks for that guys, I will go over it thoroughly tonight, I guess I have the Ecostar not the Tristar, the manual says there is a "Drive Error! Prime failed" code in troubleshooting, will that have shut it down? Not sure if it just kept restarting all night, I just know when I went out, it was running at 40% with a little water splashing around in the bottom of the basket. Will it hold that code in memory somewhere? This is hooked to a prologic board. Thanks again, Jay