Mouse in line to pump basket

[PegInAz]

Help! I found a very small deceased mouse in the top window our Pentair pump and every time we open the lid to remove it from the basket, it flows back into the incoming line. We tried pushing water through the line with a garden hose to see if it comes back up through the pool skimmer, but no luck. After turning on the pool again he comes back into the pump window. Is there a way to lower the water slowly to allow it to fall past that line opening so we can get it out of the basket? So gross to have it in there….. PS. We replaced all of our Hayward equipment with Pentair a few months ago and our old Hayward pump water level would lower with it turned off, unlike this new one, so everything would drop to the bottom of the basket.

 

[Texas Splash]

Good morning and welcome (officially) to TFP. There should be a way to isolate water flow to/from the pad to prevent this from happening. Please post some pics of your equipment pad so we can see everything like the plumbing lines, control valves, etc.

 

[duraleigh]

Sounds like you do not have a suction line shut off valve.

Worth a try to keep the pump off and open the air relief valve on the filter and, depending on your plumbing, that may make him stay in the pump basket and you can get him. It may make him flow, the other way, too, but worth a try.

 

[Joshii]

I'd do the opposite. Do you have a shop vac? Try to blow air into the skimmer line and force the mouse out to the pump

 

[duraleigh]

If you can make the hook up, I like Joshii's suggestion better than mine.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Why not just shut the pump off with the lid on and pull the drain plug at the bottom the pump wet end and drain the water down. The mouse should sink to the bottom of the basket when you do that.

 

[PegInAz]

Thanks for all the responses! Before I came back to look here, I tried turning the water feature and slide on for a few minutes and noticed the water line in the pump came down slightly (he wasn’t floating against the top). So I quickly shut off the pump and opened the lid and he was at the bottom of the basket. . Matt I had no idea there was a drain plug at the bottom of the wet end of the new pump, I’ll check that out now. The shop vac idea is good to have for next time too.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

There are two drain plugs - one on the wet end and one on the discharge/volute side of the pump. If you ever need to wonterize the pump, so for a hard freeze, you need to drain both sides as ice can damage a pump.

 

[hexabc]

...The shop vac idea is good to have for next time too.

There is a chance you will never again have a mouse in your pump. I never had.

 

[PegInAz]

Hexabc, I hope not, but here in the desert we get them in the pool frequently in the hottest months (this is the second in the pool since May). They’re actually tiny kangaroo rats and this one may have been a baby that made it into the pump from the drain. We live against a mountain, so it’s impossible to keep them out.

JoyfulNoise aka Matt, Fortunately we don’t really have hard freezes here in Phoenix; the temps might get down to 32 for a short period every couple of years but it’s not long enough for a hard freeze so we don’t winterize our pool. Makes up for the brutal summers.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate each and every one of you here; I’ve been a member since 2015 and have solved so many of our pool issues by coming here. Thank you again for this forum!

 

[JamesW]

If you ever need to wonterize the pump

In Arizona, they don't have winter, so it's understandable that they are not familiar with term like winter, ice, cold etc. LOL!

 

[swamprat69]

When I lived in Scottsdale, a BAD winter was one with more than 2 "frosts" !!! Of course in the Summer, both faucets give "hot" water!!!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I have pulled the plugs before. There was a few days in 2014 once where the day temps never got above 45F and the nights plummeted to 26F. Around Tucson, that’s a “hard” freeze. I did it just to be safe because the sub-freezing temps were longer than 8 hours. But I agree, for the most part, Arizonans from the valley down south to the border don’t need to winterize.

I have pulled drain plugs for other reasons, but never a mouse.

Do you not have a skimmer basket? Did the suction cleaner pull it in? If you do use a suction cleaner then I suggest you use an inline leaf trap to avoid suction line blockages. They are no fun to fix.

 

[PegInAz]

I have pulled the plugs before. There was a few days in 2014 once where the day temps never got above 45F and the nights plummeted to 26F. Around Tucson, that’s a “hard” freeze. I did it just to be safe because the sub-freezing temps were longer than 8 hours. But I agree, for the most part, Arizonans from the valley down south to the border don’t need to winterize.

I have pulled drain plugs for other reasons, but never a mouse.

Do you not have a skimmer basket? Did the suction cleaner pull it in? If you do use a suction cleaner then I suggest you use an inline leaf trap to avoid suction line blockages. They are no fun to fix.

Yes we have a skimmer basket that fits very snugly and no suction cleaner, we only have in-floor cleaning heads (the main drain is the only suction). However, a strange thing that happened earlier that day that might explain what happened. A large chuck walla lizard had been found thrashing around in the skimmer basket just before we found the mouse in the pump; my husband rescued him, but he’d probably been in there quite awhile already. The pool had been running several hours at that time. My guess is the deceased mouse had floated into the skimmer, as that’s what they usually do, then in floats Mr Chuck Walla, who spends the next few hours thrashing in the skimmer basket to get out, but his head gets stuck in the lid hole. His thrashing sends the mouse out of the basket, but not back into the pool since there’s a flapper and so the mouse was somehow sucked under the basket into the active skimmer line. It might have been the lizards thrashing that bounced the basket up enough for the mouse to go under it, but it seems like the only logical explanation. Aside from perhaps the mouse having died so long ago it sunk and was pulled into the main drain, that is. But this is the first time anything this wide has passed into the pump (at least in the last 11 since we’ve lived here). And there was mouse fur in the skimmer basket, evidence that he was in there very recently as it was cleaned late the day before, when I had checked the pool for debris. In case you’re wondering, my husband saw the lizard’s nose poking up through the skimmer lid and when he lifted it the foot-long lizard was still attached! They were both shocked lol. After a few shakes, the lizard was freed and tried to run away, but had to keep stopping to rest as it was exhausted from trying to keep himself from drowning for all that time. Of course I arrived a couple of hours later and only pieced it all together after examining the remnants, the mouse in the pump and then hearing the lizard story from my husband. Life in the desert with an unscreened-in pool certainly can be unpredictable. I’m usually the one taking care of the pool, so feeling lucky that I didn’t have to be the rescuer this time even though I know they’re good lizards (there are several living on our property). Thanks again for the drain plug tip, I really need to learn this new equipment and appreciate the pointers.