Pool fountain powered by booster pump.

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Sandman_satx

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Feb 14, 2014
50
Texas
Ocean Blue Cascade Fountain - Dohenys Pool Supplies Fast

I purchased this pool fountain last year and use my booster pump to provide more spraying power. My pentair booster pump was originally installed to power my pressure side pool (Legend kreepy Krauly II) cleaner but I never use this cleaner since I have a Dolphin Cleaner. While operating the fountain, my booster pump would make a loud hum during operation.

I’ve read somewhere that this fountain does not provide the right amount of back pressure and can harm my pentair booster pump. Well this weekend my booster pump stopped working. Question is do I troubleshoot and repair my booster pump (will not start) or is there a better pump better suited for my application.

Thanks in advance!
 
Troubleshoot your pump and figure out what is wrong. It is often the start capacitor.

I don’t see how lack of back pressure can make a pump fail.
 
Thanks. Would a bad start capacitor cause my pentair booster pump (LA01N) to shutoff? I checked my wiring and all looks good. The shaft spins freely. I will most likely order a capacitor.

About the back pressure thought. When I hook up my pressure side pool cleaner the pump runs extra quiet and smooth. When I detach the cleaner and run the pump you can hear the motor running loud. This is why I asked about back pressure while my fountain is hooked up. Thanks!
 
A pump for a vacuum is a high head pump. A pump for a fountain is a low head pump. If you try to use a high head pump in a low head situation it can over-run, and the noise you hear is cavitation. So if you wish to use the booster pump for a fountain, you need to use a regulating valve on the outlet to create back pressure on the pump.
 
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It can. Possibly pit and eventually fail the impeller and or the volute.

I suspect you need a waterfall pump for the fountain. Does the information with the fountain state what type of pump to use with it?
 
It would be best to re-plumb at your pad so the cleaner line is an additional return line. That eliminates the extra pump. Use valving so you can direct more flow to the fountain, if required.
 
As Marty pointed out, a booster is a high head pump but since it runs off the main pump, the suction side is at a positive pressure and usually quite high if the main pump is running a full RPM. So cavitation would be unlikely unless the RPM was quite low. The noise heard could just be the high water velocity through the pump. But I would have to hear the noise to make a determination. But even if cavitation did occur, it might damage the impeller but it should not make the motor fail.

However, if as Marty suggests, the fountain has very low head loss, then the pump could be at run out (i.e. to the very right of the head curve). Most pump motors have maximum current at this location so it would not be unusual for something to go wrong while operating at this point for a very long time. If the booster pump motor is a PSC motor, there is a possibility that running at run out could eventually make the capacitor fail. To determine this, remove the capacitor leads, energize the motor and turn the motor shaft by hand and see if it spins up. Do be careful of the electricity and the motor shaft spinning up.

Forgot to mention that at run out, axial and radial loads on the impeller shaft are quite high so, there can also be bearing issues.
 

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I don't want to hi-jack the thread but I am interested in learning if the application was wrong for the pump.

It seem to me the fountain should provide enough "resistance" that the pump would not be damaged. It also seems that actually the fountain would be a good application for the pump.....producing a high pressure spray throwing the water high into the air.

Could OP simply restrict the number of openings on the fountain if it, in fact, did not offer enough resistance?
 
Yes, reducing the orifice size of the fountain would restrict the flow enough so that the pump is not in the run out region. It just depends on how the fountain was designed. It could just be an opened end of pipe without much resistance although I would have expected a smaller pipe diameter offering some resistance. Perhaps the OP can shed some light on the fountain design.

Also, cleaner pumps tend to have very high and steep head curves so it can reach run out at fairly high head loss. Pressure side cleaners just have a lot of head loss which is what the pump was designed for.


In general, pumps should not be run at either extremes of the head curve. The left most point (shut off) is just as bad because there is no water flow through the pump and the motor cannot cool off.
 
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