Pump on but water not circulating-freezing temps

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Flbeachluvr

Flbeachluvr

Bronze Supporter
Mar 19, 2016
445
Port Orange, FL
Follow up to my question of yesterday. We are experiencing freezing temps here in Central Florida. Based on other suggestions, I set my automatic timer to turn on my pool pump last night at 3 am when the temp was supposed to reach 35 degrees and to shut off around 9 am. I also confirmed that the freeze protection was set up on my solar. This morning when getting up for work I could hear the pump running but when I looked out at the pool no water was circulating. I had just enough time to run out and see that water was moving around in the filter basket by the pump but that's really all the time I had before work. I just left everything running. Does this mean something did actually freeze? Fingers crossed my pump doesn't burn out. We are also expecting freezing temps again tonight. Should I do something different? Cover the pool equipment?
 
When you return from work you'll have to give us an update and perhaps more info to go on. If your pump strainer basket was FULL of water and operating properly, it would seem odd that no water was moving in the pool unless you had a serious pressure side blockage. If you did, your PSI would be very high and I suspect you'd know there was a problem. Any chance it was still dark and/or you just overlooked noticing the ripples in the return jets back to the water? There are other areas being hit by the storm much colder than you right now whose water is flowing fine. Even here in South Texas, our temps have been in the teens & 20s with no issues as long as the pump is still moving water through the PVC. It would take bitter cold/freezing temps over more than just 24 hrs to really plug things up. You certainly can toss a tarp or blanket of some sort over the equipment pad items if you wish just to be safe in that area. When you get back home this evening, give us an update and we'll see what we can do from there.
 
Oh, one more bit of info, when changing the timer on the pump, I noticed some water around the filter cartridge housing and on the equipment pad. I think the O ring may need to be lubed again and had planned on doing that this weekend. I'm wondering if maybe the little bit of leaking water froze and somehow messed something up?
 
I'm wondering if maybe the little bit of leaking water froze and somehow messed something up?
Click to expand...
Even if you had a little water leaking, you would need freezing temps to ice-over, and I'm not so sure that happened. Even if it did freeze a bit on the outside, it should have no effect on the water flow inside your cartridge filter. My only concern is that if your pump basket was not full of water, perhaps it was losing prime for some reason when it initially tried to kick-on at 3:00am. Your Kreepy Krauly wasn't connected by any chance was it?
 
Your temps are just above freezing right now and expected to be in the 40s by 11:00 or so. I think you're okay from freezing. If your system was running fine before you modified your pump run time, I suspect it may have struggled this morning with reaching 100% full prime to keep the pump basket full of water. Not sure why. That will be something you'll have to check on when you get home and post back with any new developments. Are you so far from home at your work that you can't take a quick peak on your lunch break? At the very least, you are safe to turn everything off now until you have time to inspect everything better this evening.
 
Texas Splash said:
Your temps are just above freezing right now and expected to be in the 40s by 11:00 or so. I think you're okay from freezing. If your system was running fine before you modified your pump run time, I suspect it may have struggled this morning with reaching 100% full prime to keep the pump basket full of water. Not sure why. That will be something you'll have to check on when you get home and post back with any new developments. Are you so far from home at your work that you can't take a quick peak on your lunch break? At the very least, you are safe to turn everything off now until you have time to inspect everything better this evening.
Click to expand...

40 minutes away from home so it will have to wait until after work. The automatic timer was set to turn the pump off at 9 am. so it should be off now. I'll check everything more thoroughly when I get home.
 
0dab3c7de962615e41988caec34e1153.jpg


Just got home and turned on the pump. Water started circulating in the pool however I noticed water coming out of a piece of PVC (coupling?) by the pump. I’m thinking something did freeze and crack?
 
Kind of hard to tell from the pic if the leak's origin is the PVC itself, coupling, or below within the threads. I'm sure the weather changes didn't help. If it's just a small trickle, you should be okay for a while. If you later go to replace that coupler where it screws into the top of the pump, you'll have to find a good place above it to separate or cut the PVC so that you can unscrew it....unless there is a union above the image we can't see.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Texas Splash said:
Kind of hard to tell from the pic if the leak's origin is the PVC itself, coupling, or below within the threads. I'm sure the weather changes didn't help. If it's just a small trickle, you should be okay for a while. If you later go to replace that coupler where it screws into the top of the pump, you'll have to find a good place above it to separate or cut the PVC so that you can unscrew it....unless there is a union above the image we can't see.
Click to expand...

1bbe00d01b3916f1d5435d9f6115cca9.jpg


Here’s a blown up photo. It looks to me like it’s leaking right where the grout is. Hoping to get a neighbor to look at this weekend as my husband knows nothing about the pool or plumbing.
 
Not to pile on with an off-topic comment but your pump is INCORRECTLY bonded. That wire attached to the bonding lug is an insulated green wire. Current NEC pool code requires that all bonding connections be made with #8 solid bare copper conductor. Bonding should not be done with insulated wire or stranded wire of any type.

Fix your leak, but consider correcting the bonding issue later on...it's for your electrical safety and the safety of those that swim in your pool.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
Not to pile on with an off-topic comment but your pump is INCORRECTLY bonded. That wire attached to the bonding lug is an insulated green wire. Current NEC pool code requires that all bonding connections be made with #8 solid bare copper conductor. Bonding should not be done with insulated wire or stranded wire of any type.

Fix your leak, but consider correcting the bonding issue later on...it's for your electrical safety and the safety of those that swim in your pool.
Click to expand...

Yikes, that’s concerning. The pool was just built in 2016 by a licensed pool contractor. Passed all inspections too.
 
Flbeachluvr said:
ded728c06ea18059c00b780ae8b4ce26.jpg


This green wire is incorrect?
Click to expand...

Normally the pump's bonding lug is attached to the rest of the pool's bonding system using solid copper conductor, not insulated copper wire. Where does the green wire connect to?

And, with regard to your original question, I don't think any water froze on you. It would takes days worth of sub-freezing temperatures to freeze moving water in a PVC pipe. Likely the cold caused some contraction in that fitting and the thread paste has sprung a leak. When things warm up, it might go away or, at the very worst, it's a simple fix to redo that connection.
 
I looked into it further here (see pages 18 and following) - http://www.mikeholt.com/download.php?file=PDF/Swimming_Pools_and_Spas_2014NEC.pdf

As long as that green wire is solid copper conductor no smaller than #8, it should be ok. The NEC only talks about "bare conductor" in reference to the pool shell and other metal objects attached to the pool (handrails, etc). When it gets to the section on pump motors, it simply states that the motor must be included in the bonding system by using solid #8 conductor but it does not specify insulated or uninsulated wire. Most pool equipment pads I've see have a the bare copper conductor from the pool shell run out to the pad and then the necessary stuff at the pad is bonded using the same style conductor. Not using a green insulated wire is probably the preferred choice as it differentiates the wire from an electrical ground wire and thus avoids future confusion. Bonding and grounding in US electrical code are not the same thing and the two are not connected to one another physically. I believe in Canada they connect the bonding wire to the electrical system ground but not in the US.

I would simply confirm that the conductor is solid and then leave it at that. Since it passed building code inspection, your local inspectors were obviously not bothered by it.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
I looked into it further here (see pages 18 and following) - http://www.mikeholt.com/download.php?file=PDF/Swimming_Pools_and_Spas_2014NEC.pdf

As long as that green wire is solid copper conductor no smaller than #8, it should be ok. The NEC only talks about "bare conductor" in reference to the pool shell and other metal objects attached to the pool (handrails, etc). When it gets to the section on pump motors, it simply states that the motor must be included in the bonding system by using solid #8 conductor but it does not specify insulated or uninsulated wire. Most pool equipment pads I've see have a the bare copper conductor from the pool shell run out to the pad and then the necessary stuff at the pad is bonded using the same style conductor. Not using a green insulated wire is probably the preferred choice as it differentiates the wire from an electrical ground wire and thus avoids future confusion. Bonding and grounding in US electrical code are not the same thing and the two are not connected to one another physically. I believe in Canada they connect the bonding wire to the electrical system ground but not in the US.

I would simply confirm that the conductor is solid and then leave it at that. Since it passed building code inspection, your local inspectors were obviously not bothered by it.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the information!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply