Century Centurion USN1202 Issues

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Alexr54

Alexr54

Well-known member
Jun 17, 2015
163
Florida
I just bought my first house a few months ago in the Central Florida area. Comes with a totally beautiful in-ground pool/spa. Its also a very complex system which I am still learning how to use and control fully.

I noticed the other day that when the spa filter gets turned on sometimes it will work fine and other times it will not. When its working fine I can see the water swirl under the clear plastic filter cover in the pump area. When its not working, it sounds like it is, but the water is not swirling and its definitely 100% not pumping.

So, sometimes the pump works and sometimes it does not. When it works and when it does not, the pump sounds basically the same.
I have read about changing the capacitor if it makes a humming sound. I am not really sure if this is considered humming or not, its pretty loud... So I went ahead and ordered a capacitor anyway because it surely cant hurt to try a cheap and easy fix.

I was hoping someone on this forum may be able to put me a bit at ease by telling me what they think it can be, based on my description?

The pump is a 2HP Century Centurion USN1202
 
It sounds like the pump is running but there's no water flow sometimes. If that's the case, sounds like you have a valve that's not working some times. Does the pool and spa share equipment? Does the spa filter have a pressure gauge on it?
 
Bama Rambler said:
It sounds like the pump is running but there's no water flow sometimes. If that's the case, sounds like you have a valve that's not working some times. Does the pool and spa share equipment? Does the spa filter have a pressure gauge on it?
Click to expand...

The pool and spa have a few automatic Jandy valves, all seem to turn without issue. The pool and spa share the heater and in the maze of tubes I have I am pretty sure they share other things, but each have their own pump/filter.
The pool pump and filter is working without issue.

The thing is sometimes for me to get the spa pump to work, what I do is turn it on/off several times then eventually it starts pumping water.
I even opened it up (the clear plastic cover) and put a open garden hose in there to see if it was not getting enough water, but it made no difference, it still didn't pump water. Only after I shut it off/on a few times it did work eventually. I am worried one day it just wont start at all.
I did not notice a pressure gauge there by the spa pump but will look specifically for it when I am home.
 
In that case it could be that there's a small air leak and the pump is partially losing prime when it shuts off, and not immediately regaining it upon restarting.

Is there more air in the pump basket when it's shut off than when it's running?
Have you cleaned and lubed the pump strainer basket lid o-ring?
 
I have not, but I will give that a try. It does look and sound a lot like its not priming itself.
When the pump turns on, the water in the basket goes down and does not come back up when it fails, when it works it comes up and starts swirling.
 
I had my pool guy check it out, and his assessment was the pump is not getting enough water pressure because the filter is bad.
The pressure gauge shows 40PSI, which he says is not good. I have pressure gauges on both the filters pool and spa, both show the same 40PSI.

Would you agree with his assessment?
Its a new house for me, the pool guy is a nice guy but he is new to me and I am not 100% sure I trust him yet.
 
Maybe if I post some pictures of my setup, do you think someone on this forum may be able to help identify what everything is and how everything works?
I am still very confused about all the valve settings and what exactly everything is used for.

The pool has some pop-up sprinklers on the bottom, they sometime come up and spray water to clean off the bottom of the pool. Cant figure out what controls them. Same with the spa.
It has sprinklers (which my kids love) which go on by an manual valve, but I have no idea what it does in the other direction, I see bubbles when I do that...
One automatic valve controls the waterfall, but not sure what the other direction does. Another automatic valve I have no idea what it does in either direction.
The system keeps saying low salt even after I change the salt cell.

This pool is crazy complex and seems to have its issues.
 

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The in-floor cleaning system will cause the pool pumps to run at a higher pressure than a regular wall return system will, so that's part of the reason you're seeing higher pressures.

Posting a few pictures of your pool and equipment will definitely help us help you figure things out.

If you've changed the salt cell for a new one and it's still reading low salt, then it probably is low. Have you had the salt level independently checked? Take a sample of water to a couple of pool stores and have them test it.

Once you've gotten familiar with the equipment and how it works things will be a lot easier to manage.
 
I can make out the two pumps, two filters and the heater. The thing on the far right may be the infloor cleaning distributor, but I can't make it out.

Can you get closer? Even take a few from closer and different angles?
 
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I changed the filters yesterday to brand new ones. The spa pressure I am unsure of because the pump wont start still because of a leak.
The pool filter pressure gauge went down from ~40PSI to ~10PSI. Huge difference.
 
Yes progress. Thanks :)

My pool guy is always late, never comes on the day he is supposed to... The part came in and he is supposed to do the work, but of course no show yet.

So I figured out the in-ground pool cleaning system is called a zodiac ultraflex 2 - 8 port system. Seems like a cool system but I still cant figure out how to make it switch zones. When its on, the same jets that popup on the bottom of the pool stay popped up until the pump turns off. It does not change like it says it should.
 
Sounds like the distributor is stuck. That's an electrically operated system so it could be that it's in pause mode or that the controls or motor isn't getting power. I'd have the pool guy to look at it if he ever shows up.

I'd really appreciate it if you would post what you find when and if you get it working.
 

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