Pump priming problem

[msifland]

Ok, so another newbie here, go easy on me. I have a 16x32 IG pool. Sand filter. Just bought a house 1 month ago with pool. Using Baquacil. After visiting various pool stores I have figured out that the sand in my filter needs to be changed. At the recommendation of a pool guy not to worry about changing the sand this late in the year, he told me to put the Baquacil universal filter cleaner in my sand filter.

I followed directions to the tee. Backwashed, turned off pump, opened pump basket, scooped out water, poured in 1/2 gallon of solution, put lid back on pump basket and tightened....now here's where the problem comes in. At this point you are suppose to backwash solution into filter...well when I turned it back on the water would never flow back into the basket, pump wasn't sucking the water from the pool.

I looked up priming steps and did that several times and nothing. I have to keep it on backwash so none of the solution gets into the pool now that it's in the system.

Everything was working fine until I did this. Can anyone give some advice? Thanks in advance.

Michael Ifland

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum.

You are doing some things that we wouldn't suggest, but let's see if we can get your pump primed.

About the only reason a functioning pump won't prime is that it's getting air in the system on the suction side of the system. You have to find where that air is leaking in.

Common culprit is the pump basket lid not making a good seal. Another one is water in the pool is too low and it is sucking air from the skimmer.

Sometimes they are hard to find but if you can seal the suction side of your system from air, (the suction side is between the skimmer and the pump) the pump will prime.

 

[msifland]

Thanks for responding. The seal on the pump basket is good. When I shut off the pump and unscrew the screws the vacuum is the there, when I pull off the lid. The water is not to low and there is no air from the skimmer, I have also tried to prime from the drain and that didn't work either.

 

[duraleigh]

If your suction side is airtight, then about the only other thing it might be is the impeller has come loose from the shaft or there may be some debris entangling it..

From a percentage standpoint, that is pretty uncommon but possible.

If you have a valve on the backwash pipe, is it open?