yesterday after the kids had a bunch of friends in the pool, I went to sweep and brush and chlorinate, checked pump after its afternoon run and discovered it had lost prime, also discovered a crack in the vacuum hose in the pool so I suspect the pump ingested air for an unknown amount of time during its run . Re-primed, let filter run for a minute or two, turned pump off and heard the dreaded "whoosh" sound of water being pulled back through the pump inlet. Notice that pump feels like a small radiator so I decide to let it cool off overnight.
Today I re-prime the pump and again it doesn't hold prime when I turn pump off. I backflush and rinse the filter and hear a distinct "whoosh" during the backflush and wonder if there was some obstruction that had been contributing to Unhappy Pool Pump Syndrome (the vacuum hose, in addition to having cracked, also had become slightly detached from the wall so I wonder if it it got a big hairball or something?). And now the pump is holding prime. Hubby joins me and thinks pump is radiating a lot of heat so he estimates the current draw by reading our meter with and without the pump running and it's 1.4 kilowatts, the maximum draw listed on the pump specs (WhisperFlo WFE3 single speed pump 0.75HP motor). Is this normal for an older single-speed pump or is this a sign that it's on its last legs and may have been mortally wounded by its experiences yesterday?
(BTW we *have* been investigating upgrading the pump to a more energy-efficient multispeed one, but as is often the case with older pools in older homes, we'd have to upgrade the electrical in the pool area before we could upgrade the pump)
Today I re-prime the pump and again it doesn't hold prime when I turn pump off. I backflush and rinse the filter and hear a distinct "whoosh" during the backflush and wonder if there was some obstruction that had been contributing to Unhappy Pool Pump Syndrome (the vacuum hose, in addition to having cracked, also had become slightly detached from the wall so I wonder if it it got a big hairball or something?). And now the pump is holding prime. Hubby joins me and thinks pump is radiating a lot of heat so he estimates the current draw by reading our meter with and without the pump running and it's 1.4 kilowatts, the maximum draw listed on the pump specs (WhisperFlo WFE3 single speed pump 0.75HP motor). Is this normal for an older single-speed pump or is this a sign that it's on its last legs and may have been mortally wounded by its experiences yesterday?
(BTW we *have* been investigating upgrading the pump to a more energy-efficient multispeed one, but as is often the case with older pools in older homes, we'd have to upgrade the electrical in the pool area before we could upgrade the pump)
