System won't hold prime, but no water leaks

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twoolley

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Jun 20, 2011
91
Hey guys,

I'm using a local pool company with my home warranty to try to keep my system primed. Unfortunately the local pool repair company is having problems and the guy looked at it today for 5 minutes and said he doesn't have parts. Didn't write anything down or take a picture or anything then left.

What could be causing the system to lose prime slowly after the system is turned off? Keep in mind there are no leaks on the equipment pad.

Thanks in advance,
Tom
 
air is being sucked into the system. If there is no water leakage on the pressure side (from the pump to the returns) then you can expect that air leak to be on the suction side between the skimmers and the pump
 
Losing prime AFTER the pump is off is not ideal, but common. An above-ground leak ANYWHERE in the system (suction- or pressure-side) will cause all the water to drain out of the above-ground plumbing when the pump is off. You may not be able to see the above-ground leak, but believe me, it is there. If you don't have air in the pump basket when the pump is running, then there should be a drip somewhere on the pressure side (pump outlet, filter inlet/outlet/drain plug/air release), etc etc).

As long as the pump primes with no trouble, I would expect them not to fix it. Home warranties are next to useless, especially if it can be argued that there's nothing wrong. This case fits that description.
 
The pump primes itself just fine every time it comes on, it just forces a lot of air out of the return jets. My concern is for two things:

1) Is repriming once a day going to burn up my pump? As I said before, the pump is capable of priming itself just fine, and is running normally within 2-3 minutes.

2) Is there a water hammer effect on the return jets that is going to affect their seal with the pool? I don't want to put that stress on the wall of the pool if it's going to break it.

Thanks guys!

-Tom
 
As long as the pump is priming fairly quickly, then there should be no long term effects. However, I would try to find the air leak if possible as it could get worse over time and if the pump cannot prime in a reasonable amount of time, that could lead to seal problems.

As was previously stated, the most likely cause is either a bad pump lid seal or the drain plugs. Use a little pool lube on those and see if it helps.

Also check the filter air bleeder valve. Sometimes those won't leak water out but will still leak air in when the pump is off.
 
Thank you for all the responses, I'm still looking into this and trying several things.

My wife and I did try to use the spa yesterday and when we turned the control panel inside the house to "spa mode" it started slowly draining the spa into the pool. I have attached a picture of the equipment pad and labeled the water flow as best I could. The spa is elevated above the pool with a spillover into the pool.

Poolequipmentpad.jpg


When I change the mode the pool is in, the 2 Jandy actuators change the flow of water from and into the pool/spa.

Pool Mode - Water is taken from main drain and skimmers and flows into the pool and spa.
Spa Mode - Water is taken from the spa drains and flows into the pool & spa.

In Spa Mode the actuator on the valve that feeds the return jets isn't completely moving over to the spa only and it's putting water back into the pool & spa. Is this normal operation?! Shouldn't the water be pulled from the spa drains and then put back into the spa only? In this picture the handles seem to indicate that the water is coming from the pool drains and skimmers and flowing out through the right side return with the check valve on it. That should be to the pool because the pool jets are working right now yet the spa's spillover is also working :shock: .

In Pool Mode the actuator on the valve that feeds the return jets seems to only point to the pool yet there's water going into the spa and the spillover is working.

Also in spa mode (no blower on) the pump's filter basket is full of air bubbles, so I think there may be a leak somewhere between the spa drains and the pump because it doesn't pull in air otherwise.

I'm very confused, we've used the spa before and didn't seem to have these problems like we are now; however, power outages that happen in my area seem to play heck with the aqualink system. Any and all advice would be appreciated. I really need to know what these valve positions *should* be for normal operation and if they are off in some way!

Thanks everyone!
 
The return valve should move all the way to spa if the suction valve is moving all the way to spa. Otherwise you're going to drain the spa because you're taking more out of it than you're putting into it. There should also be a spillover mode. That's where you take water out of the pool and return it to the spa so it overflows into the pool.
 

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"Pool Mode" seems to be to be the spillover mode them because that is what happens.

I guess my jandy valve is broken on the other side because it doesn't move all the way. Is there some way to reset it or manually move it all the way over?
 
I'll give that a try tonight. The valve seems to think that position is it's furthest that it can move to. Is there some way to "reprogram" the valve to move further over or is just that the valve is broken and I should buy a new one?
 
Depends on if it's the valve or the actuator that's the problem and what's stopping it. If something in the actuator has slipped then you can certainly readjust it to move it all the way. If there's something stuck in the valve you can probably just remove it and all should be good.
 
Some PBs will setup the actuator so there is a little flow through the spa when in pool mode to keep it filtered and chlorinated. Many controllers do not have a timer setting available for both pool only and spillover only so this is the next best thing.
 
Yeah, I don't have a spillover mode.

In the picture I posted above the valve looks like it's completely closed to the spa, and yet the spa still runs. How is that happening?

My pool return has the jandy valve on the left with the actuator on it. I assume 1 side is for pool and the other is for spa. Is it possible that the Pool side of it also has a few jets returning to the spa? I only ask because it appears the valve is completely closed on the pool side and yet there's a healthy flow on the spillover.
 
There looks to be separate pipe that is split off right after the pump and before the filter. Where does that line go to? It goes into the ground right next to the spa pipe.
 
I lose prime every evening as well. When I turn the pump off I can hear a sucking sound coming from the multi valve on top of my sand filter. I am not sure it is the valve or the O-ring. However I do not have a water leak. Hard to believe I can hear sucking air and not have a water leak when the pump is on but that looks like what is happening.
 
Poolequipmentpad.jpg

twoolley said:
In the picture I posted above the valve looks like it's completely closed to the spa, and yet the spa still runs. How is that happening?
Click to expand...
Ok, are the pipes at the bottom of this picture from left to right the following:

Pool Return -- Valve -- Spa Return ......... Pool Suction -- Valve -- Spa Suction

Currently in the picture the valves seem to be set for Spa Return and Pool suction. This is overflow mode so water should be returned to the spa.

At the bottom of the actuator, there is a switch, toggle it (left actuator) to the other position and see if the spa flow stops and all the water is returned to the pool.
 

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