So this is my second year opening the pool, and I am having some pump/plumbing issues:
Prior to starting this year I got curious about how the motor looked inside because the previous owner doesn't seem to have been big on upkeep. I opened it and replaced the seals and inspected everything. I also got a small leak in the filter return to the SWG I put in at the beginning of last season so replaced the flexible PVC with rigid PVC.
After putting everything back together, I started the pump and everything seemed to be running smoothly. I manually vacuumed and then left everything alone to mix the chlorine in. I heard a weird noise that I hadn't been hearing and went outside to check after 4 hours and the seal between the housing and motor was leaking pretty spectacularly. Turned it off at that point.
Next time I went out to work on it, I took the motor/pump apart enough to check the seals again. It wasn't broken or damaged, I'm pretty sure I didn't tighten the bolts enough. So, put it back together and made sure to tighten it enough. Started it back up and the motor turned on but I didn't get any suction? After trying several combinations of skimmers and recircing/filtering to try to figure out what was wrong, I eventually got it to start with 1 skimmer and added the other skimmer and main drain back eventually. I was able to start and stop the motor twice to backflush and eventually turned it off because I didn't feel like losing more water if it sprung a leak while I was gone.
So today, I went out to do some more vac work(there's a lot of dirt this year) and started the motor and ran into the same problem. Noticed that the SWG tube was completely empty. Tried the combo that made it work last time and had no success. The pump does not sound like it is running dry, I don't think. And then I tried to troubleshoot where it was coming from:
- Pumping to waste (isolate the return) - nothing
- Pumping to recirc (iso the filter) - nothing
- Using normally - nothing -> Side note here, I noticed that when I turned the motor off in this configuration, water came back up into the SWG tube.
So I tried to see if I could figure out if it was just one line of the suction causing the problem by shutting off the other two valves and putting hose water through the pump housing. The 2 skimmers filled to the point of overflowing the pump basket. The main drain did not, but I also did not do it for a long time.
I also tested the valves by shutting all three and filling the pump basket and at least one of the valves does not close all the way.
So at this point, I am thinking that: the main drain line has a leak. the motor is not pumping properly, or some other place has a leak. Also, there is a very minor leak on the underside of the pump housing, but it's not even a drop by minute so I don't think it's the main issue.
I think that's everything, and if you made it this far congrats! I also included some pictures of the setup.
Prior to starting this year I got curious about how the motor looked inside because the previous owner doesn't seem to have been big on upkeep. I opened it and replaced the seals and inspected everything. I also got a small leak in the filter return to the SWG I put in at the beginning of last season so replaced the flexible PVC with rigid PVC.
After putting everything back together, I started the pump and everything seemed to be running smoothly. I manually vacuumed and then left everything alone to mix the chlorine in. I heard a weird noise that I hadn't been hearing and went outside to check after 4 hours and the seal between the housing and motor was leaking pretty spectacularly. Turned it off at that point.
Next time I went out to work on it, I took the motor/pump apart enough to check the seals again. It wasn't broken or damaged, I'm pretty sure I didn't tighten the bolts enough. So, put it back together and made sure to tighten it enough. Started it back up and the motor turned on but I didn't get any suction? After trying several combinations of skimmers and recircing/filtering to try to figure out what was wrong, I eventually got it to start with 1 skimmer and added the other skimmer and main drain back eventually. I was able to start and stop the motor twice to backflush and eventually turned it off because I didn't feel like losing more water if it sprung a leak while I was gone.
So today, I went out to do some more vac work(there's a lot of dirt this year) and started the motor and ran into the same problem. Noticed that the SWG tube was completely empty. Tried the combo that made it work last time and had no success. The pump does not sound like it is running dry, I don't think. And then I tried to troubleshoot where it was coming from:
- Pumping to waste (isolate the return) - nothing
- Pumping to recirc (iso the filter) - nothing
- Using normally - nothing -> Side note here, I noticed that when I turned the motor off in this configuration, water came back up into the SWG tube.
So I tried to see if I could figure out if it was just one line of the suction causing the problem by shutting off the other two valves and putting hose water through the pump housing. The 2 skimmers filled to the point of overflowing the pump basket. The main drain did not, but I also did not do it for a long time.
I also tested the valves by shutting all three and filling the pump basket and at least one of the valves does not close all the way.
So at this point, I am thinking that: the main drain line has a leak. the motor is not pumping properly, or some other place has a leak. Also, there is a very minor leak on the underside of the pump housing, but it's not even a drop by minute so I don't think it's the main issue.
I think that's everything, and if you made it this far congrats! I also included some pictures of the setup.
