Pump Problems

[pbuffington]

Hello Everyone! I'm in Atlanta GA with a vinyl pool. We were vacuuming, and getting it ready tonight, but it had a fair amount of pollen, tree bits, and leaves in it. (And some sweetgum tree balls) I had my basket in the whole time, as well as the pump basket.

All of a sudden, the pump got really quiet, and no water was flowing. It wasn't sucking, pressure was 0, no water was moving in the glass before the filter, or before the pump. BUT, I could still hear the motor running. It was like a blade wasn't spinning. I quickly shut it off.

Attached is a picture of my pump. Can I open that band around the front of it, and see if something is stuck, or is my only option to call a pool repair person. Of course, this was after I poured in bleach to shock the pool.

Any advice appreciated, this is only my second year with a pool.

Thanks
Pam

 

[Smykowski]

How confident are you that the pressure gauge is accurate? Everything you described points to the baskets/filter filling up with dirt/leaves/other assorted junk. However, in that scenario, the pressure would go high.

What kind of filter is it? Did you clean out all the baskets and clean/backwash the filter and try the pump again?

 

[jblizzle]

Did either the skimmer if pump basket get clogged? Did you clean them out and try the pump again?

Sure you can remove the band and check out the impeller.

 

[Willi]

Sounds like impeller issues.

Disconnect the power, shut your valves and take the front cover off the pump housing to inspect and clean the impeller. Hopefully the hub and impeller are intact.

 

[pbuffington]

This is why I love TFP!
OK, I'm 98% confident that my guage is working as it's been working over the last few days. Now it reads 0 with no water flowing to the SAND filter.
I've cleaned out all the baskets. Neither were blocked, but both had stuff in them. (the pool is under oak and sweetgum trees) :/
I tried backwashing it, but no water flows so that doesn't change anything.

Tomorrow I'll try removing the front cover off the pump housing. (That's unscrewing that silver band, right?)

I'll update tomorrow night!

Pam