So I'll start with this, my parents bought this house when I was 8 yrs old and my dad worked for a pool company previously and at the time of purchase. I learned the ins and outs of pool care, troubleshooting, opening and closing pools. I even helped my dad with side jobs when I was younger. Since then I've purchased my parents house and have always taken care of the pool.
I recently just upgraded from a hayward superpump 1.5hp to a variable speed. I also scoped my skimmer line and discovered a few holes from a groundhog that made a home under the concrete that surrounds the pool. So I replaced my skimmer line, installed a new jandy gray valve that diverts between the skimmer and main drain(main drain has been an issue since my parents bought the house) and installed the variable speed.
The problem I'm having is I can not get the pump to stay fully primed. So far I've open up the jandy found a partially crushed gasket, replaced with a whole new jandy head assembly. Checked every connection more than 3 or 4 times with all the usual methods garden hose, shaving cream and I've even went over every glue joint individually and added glue then turned on the pump so if there was a tiny pin hole the glue could be sucks in and seal the leak. Lid o-ring is magic lubed well, inlet oring is lubed and threading is teflon taped with liquid teflon on top of that. Drain plugs on the pump are tefloned and orings are lubed. Threaded coupling on the bottom of the skimmer is tefloned and liquid tefloned.
No matter what I do I can not get this thing to stay primed. I even got a replacement variable speed pump thinking something was defective with the pump. Another weird thing that I can't figure out is that I can prime the pump fully with no air if I set the multiport to waste. It will not prime on recirculate or rinse or filter. How can it prime to waste when it's pulling from the same skimmer line, the only thing that changes is where I'm sending the water too. So how is that making a difference when I prime but I can't get a full prime set to filter?
Sorry for the long winded post but I wanted to give as much info as I could even though I'm sure I forgot something. Thanks in advance for any help
I recently just upgraded from a hayward superpump 1.5hp to a variable speed. I also scoped my skimmer line and discovered a few holes from a groundhog that made a home under the concrete that surrounds the pool. So I replaced my skimmer line, installed a new jandy gray valve that diverts between the skimmer and main drain(main drain has been an issue since my parents bought the house) and installed the variable speed.
The problem I'm having is I can not get the pump to stay fully primed. So far I've open up the jandy found a partially crushed gasket, replaced with a whole new jandy head assembly. Checked every connection more than 3 or 4 times with all the usual methods garden hose, shaving cream and I've even went over every glue joint individually and added glue then turned on the pump so if there was a tiny pin hole the glue could be sucks in and seal the leak. Lid o-ring is magic lubed well, inlet oring is lubed and threading is teflon taped with liquid teflon on top of that. Drain plugs on the pump are tefloned and orings are lubed. Threaded coupling on the bottom of the skimmer is tefloned and liquid tefloned.
No matter what I do I can not get this thing to stay primed. I even got a replacement variable speed pump thinking something was defective with the pump. Another weird thing that I can't figure out is that I can prime the pump fully with no air if I set the multiport to waste. It will not prime on recirculate or rinse or filter. How can it prime to waste when it's pulling from the same skimmer line, the only thing that changes is where I'm sending the water too. So how is that making a difference when I prime but I can't get a full prime set to filter?
Sorry for the long winded post but I wanted to give as much info as I could even though I'm sure I forgot something. Thanks in advance for any help