Pentair Intelliflo VS - off-balance impeller

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Brian A

Bronze Supporter
Apr 2, 2020
12
Frisco, TX
Pool Size
15000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Turbo Cell (T-CELL-5)
Hello All,

My pump had seemingly been running fine for the past ~8 years but I turned it off to switch over for a backwash and when I switched the pump back on it showed an over current error that won't clear. Read through a few threads and found my impeller wouldn't budge. I took the pump out and found that the impeller was crooked against the seal plate. I was able to force it off and you can see in the picture below the amount of rubbing that was occurring. I am uncertain of how much more of the motor to take apart and work on due to the age.

Hoping an expert can guide as to whether this looks like it may be something easy to fix on the inside or to just move on to a new pump. It does seem that the motor is about 1/3 the cost of getting a new pump outright so perhaps it is worth replacing just the motor.

Appreciate your help!

Brian
 

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James

Thank you! That seems to be the precise issue as both the lower grommets look like the one on the bottom right of your picture. In fact there is so much corrosion that the plate pulled away from both lower bolts freely and those bolts are so corroded onto the mount that I can't remove them by brute force.

Any recommendation for getting the corroded bolts out without welding/super heating? Is the housing aluminum? (Updated: I see your link to the frozen bolt, will try penetrating oil...thanks!)

Appreciate your quick response last night!

Brian
 
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Brian A said:
James

Thank you! That seems to be the precise issue as both the lower grommets look like the one on the bottom right of your picture. In fact there is so much corrosion that the plate pulled away from both lower bolts freely and those bolts are so corroded onto the mount that I can't remove them by brute force.

Any recommendation for getting the corroded bolts out without welding/super heating? Is the housing aluminum? (Updated: I see your link to the frozen bolt, will try penetrating oil...thanks!)

Appreciate your quick response last night!

Brian
Click to expand...
The sealplate is plastic. You will not get those bolts out without severe damage to the brass inserts or finding enough damage that likely the threads won't let new bolts tighten properly. Its really about a reliable repair. If you get a new motor you want to replace the sealplate as well. If you don't get a new pump, get a CMP sealplate kit. Don't worry that it doesn't say Intelliflow, its the same pump. Costs less and is better than OEM:
 
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Hello All,

I may have done it now...was spraying and chinking away the corrosion from the bolts. One corner of the motor connection was pretty deeply pitted and snapped off with what I thought was light hammering in an attempt to loosen. Based on this picture, is this a part I can replace or will I now need to replace the whole motor?

Thanks again for the help!

Best regards,
Brian
 

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1poolman1 said:
The sealplate is plastic. You will not get those bolts out without severe damage to the brass inserts or finding enough damage that likely the threads won't let new bolts tighten properly. Its really about a reliable repair. If you get a new motor you want to replace the sealplate as well. If you don't get a new pump, get a CMP sealplate kit. Don't worry that it doesn't say Intelliflow, its the same pump. Costs less and is better than OEM:
Click to expand...
Hi James,

Yes, I ordered a new seal plate...thank you. As you can see from my last post the corner of the motor mount broke off due to pitting/corrosion when I was trying to get it clean. Not sure I can just order a replacement to the motor mount without a new motor. Not sure how long that mount would have worked or even if it would have at all with the pitting creating a non-flush connection.

Thanks again.

Brian
 
Brian A said:
Hi James,

Yes, I ordered a new seal plate...thank you. As you can see from my last post the corner of the motor mount broke off due to pitting/corrosion when I was trying to get it clean. Not sure I can just order a replacement to the motor mount without a new motor. Not sure how long that mount would have worked or even if it would have at all with the pitting creating a non-flush connection.

Thanks again.

Brian
Click to expand...
The front-end bell of that motor is held on (the entire motor is held together) with 4 very thin through-bolts. IF you can get the fan off, you might be able to remove them. If they are out you might be able to tap the motor apart. Most likely they will snap in the front end-bell. Before trying give Century Motors (Regal Beloit, https://www.regalrexnord.com/) a call and see if the end bell is available separately. Though the cost is high, if your drive is good, a new motor is a better option. That corrosion is the result of a long-time seal leak that has, likely, caused much more damage to the internals of the motor. At the very least the bearings are bad.
 
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