Suction leak: Cost effective solution to this specific situation?

[Jusloco262]

Been reading and learning from you pool experts for about two months, thank you very much for all the knowledge you've passed down to me.

Here's the situation:
There's a suction side air leak that I haven't been able to find. (checked everywhere leading up to pump, and a little after, have not checked underground, all three times)
Of course this causes air in the pump strainer basket area, and also bubbles to come out of two jets: one in the pool and other on the spa. Its a constant flow of small bubbles, more come out of the pool jet than the spa jet.
I've read that running the pump with such a suction side air leak will shorten the lifespan of the pump by overheating it. This would be the one downside.
I have not been able to find the air leak (I will try digging down util the first connection as a last resort)

I could hire a pool company to find the leak, and fix it. That'd be at least 150 for them to come out, and whatever it costs to fix it. (if air leak is underground, much more costly).
Big question:
With this in mind, for the150 plus dollars that it would cost to fix it, would it make more sense to let the pump run until it expires, in who knows how many years, and then buying a new one for the 300$ it costs?
The pump is already a lil rusty. I don't know when it was bought.

With that in mind, I come to you: what would be the most cost-effective course of action?

Thank you very much in advance!
Justin Russell

 

[JohnT]

As long as the basket is mostly full of water that is flowing, it isn’t going to cause the pump to overheat.

 

[SoCal_Pool_Owner]

I found my suction side leak was a cracked o-ring inside one of my Jandy 3-way valves. I bought replacement o-rings on Amazon and it takes about 5 minutes to replace. Have you tried that?

 

[Oly]

Check the easy things first. After inspecting all O-rings (see above post), clean and coat them with silicone grease. These include the pump filter basket lid, pump drain plugs and suction side valves and seals. Also check your skimmer(s) to be sure you are not sucking air due to stuck weir doors or restricted flow.

 

[Jusloco262]

I found my suction side leak was a cracked o-ring inside one of my Jandy 3-way valves. I bought replacement o-rings on Amazon and it takes about 5 minutes to replace. Have you tried that?

Thanks for the suggestion! I did check all of the valves and all the piping up to the pump and a little after it with detergent foam!

 

[Jusloco262]

Check the easy things first. After inspecting all O-rings (see above post), clean and coat them with silicone grease. These include the pump filter basket lid, pump drain plugs and suction side valves and seals. Also check your skimmer(s) to be sure you are not sucking air due to stuck weir doors or restricted flow.

I've checked the pump filter basket lid o rings and the drain plugs with detergent foam, no apparent air leak, I lubed them with silicone anyways, just in case. Should I check the or rings of the valves anyway? Even tho the foam test did not show a leak there?
Skimmers are not restricted at all, but one sucks more than the other, probably because of the air in the tubes

 

[Oly]

I would pull apart the valves and have a look and at minimum service the o-rings.
Do you run your pump 24 hours? If not does it lose prime when it is off for several hours? Is your pump a variable speed pump, if so what is the lowest setting you are using and for how many hours? Do you run a salt water chlorine generation system? Sorry for all the questions. Can you isolate each of the skimmers or both if you have a bottom drain to determine where to start looking.
One way to diagnose if your problem is in the underground plumbing would be to rig up a rigid PVC pipe above ground directly from your pump union to your pool to completely bypass the potential problem area and see if the problem goes away. Some of the new plumbing leak technology now is amazing.

 

[Jusloco262]

Thank you all, checked an automatic Jandy valve and realized there was one air leak there, replaced o- rings and solved it.
There was another air leak in the PVC pipe connected to the pump, it was small and barely visible, I covered it with some pipe thread sealant that could be used for PVC.
Result: no air in the pump basket anymore, and no bubbles come out of any pool jets.
Thank you all so very much for your advice.