bubbles and low pressure

[JSmid6]

I have done a lot of research and tested many things with our system but cannot solve this problem. Our pump is blowing out small bubbless constanly from the two outlets closest to the pump. the outlets furthest away appear to have very low pressure, I can hold my hand over them and no water will come out whatsoever. I thought the problem might be the filter, so I changed the valve over to "recurcilate" to bypass the filter and that did not change anything. We have about a 20,000 gallon pool and it has a challenger pac-fab 2hp motor on it. Also, in our SWG i can always see a small amount of air, as well as the filter basket directly in front of the pump has air at the top of it. Thank you for any help, I am at a loss here.

also, Our polaris is not running at all and I belive it to be because of this problem. We ordered a tune up kit and fixed it but it will not run at all. The booster pump doesnt appear to be boosting the pressure much, not enough at least.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

You have air coming in on the suction side of the pump, which is probably preventing the pump from achieving a complete prime, which will lower the flow rate significantly.

The most common place for air to get in is the seal on the lid of the pump strainer basket. It is also possible for air to get in the skimmer if the water level is too low and a vortex is forming which draws in air. Another possibility would be a hose connection in the plumbing before the pumps, such as used by an off line chlorinator. If none of those are the issue there may be an air leak in the suction side plumbing.

 

[JSmid6]

I will try replacing the O-ring on the filter basket. The water level is high enough, at our normal level.

 

[waste]

Welcome to TFP!!

Jason covered you on the bubbles in the pump It seems like your returns were run in 'series', rather than parrallel, you can put smaller 'eyeballs' on the returns closest to the pump and larger ones on those farther away to ~ equalize the flow.

The air in the salt cell may be from the suction leak or it may just be the hydrogen bubbles created by the salt to chlorine process in the cell.

Please keep us posted as to your progress.