Skimmer lid leak/bubbles

[cillovely]

We have a Hayward Power Flow LX pump. At the top of the skimmer lild there are little bubbles going around and a slight leak. We replaced the O ring, put lube on it, and still bubbles. We then put the original O ring on as well and that helped the leak for now, although I know this is wrong and we shouldn't have to have 2 o rings on there.

Any suggestions as to where this leak could be coming from or what we should be checking. We changed the hoses so those are new, they are nice and tightly connected.

Pressure is the same as it always is and it's coming out the return with plenty of force.

 

[J20832]

Not sure if you have already done this... but what I do is take the o-ring off, put a nice thick layer of lube on the entire ring (all sides) and then put it back on.

The other thing is to look for a possible crack on either the lid or the housing.

BTW, I am assuming you don't really mean "skimmer lid" but rather "pump pot lid" or "pump basket lid". A skimmer lid just covers a skimmer for safety purposes, they are designed to be easy to remove and wouldn't be well sealed.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Since you had to use 2 o-rings I'd suspect the lid is warped or has a nick in the sealing surface.

 

[CUTiger78]

This goes without saying, you cleaned any debris out of the o-ring channel and off the o-ring, right? Sometimes the simplest things....

If everything else looks, OK, look for one thing & try another:
1) Look for any water spurting out when you turn off the pump. There's your suction leak.
2) Try to flood the suspect area (lid, pump housing) with water from a garden hose. If this reduces the air infiltration, you've still got a suction leak to pinpoint.

BTW, some leaks in pump housings can be hard to spot. I had a leak in the velote of my Polaris booster pump. It was obvious when under pressure, but on close examination, you couldn't see the crack.

Good luck!

 

[cillovely]

BTW, I am assuming you don't really mean "skimmer lid" but rather "pump pot lid" or "pump basket lid". A skimmer lid just covers a skimmer for safety purposes, they are designed to be easy to remove and wouldn't be well sealed.

Yes I didn't mean skimmer lid, but meant strainer lid. I call it pump pot myself but looking on line I couldn't find any matches for pump pot, so I got the strainer term from a parts listing diagram. And I was a bit aggrivated when I posted this. The filter has been giving me fits all year and I was at my wits end.

In any case thanks for all your suggestions, but given the age of the pump and how it's been mickey moused over and over with more leaks popping up, and the pump itself sounding like it was ready to die, we decided to just bite the bullet and get a new DE fliter.