Check valve help please!

[Lorishopaholic]

I have been browsing this site and the knowledge and help here is just unbelievable! We had our pool put in this summer and we did a factory assist fiberglass. We have been having problems with our pump priming. The equipment pad sits about 4-5 ft. or so above our pool water line. I have been reading a lot of the forums on here and it seems we would need a check valve. My question is where should that valve be placed? Does it need to be at the same level as the water line or as low as we can place it? We want access to it so if it is at the water line it would be buried. Most of the pictures I see the check valve is placed right by the pump. (Before the pump) but, is that for a different situation?

Once the the pump is primed it runs perfect. As it is priming I can see the water coming up the flex hose to the top of the filter. It just slowly makes its way up once it hits the top the basket fills and everything begins working. I would love any and all suggestions as we are new to this and I want to put the pool on our timer but i can't due to the priming issue. Thanks in advance!

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. How long does it take to prime? When it finally primes, do you see air bubbles either in the pump basket lid or coming into the pool via the returns?

 

[Texas Splash]

Hello and welcome to TFP! Depending upon the type of filter and set-up of the equipment, a check valve can be used in more than one position (help to prevent losing prime, prevent filter water from going back to pump, etc). Mine happens to be just before the pump/skimmer basket at ground level. You can see how mine is positioned by looking at the "My pool" link located below in my signature. Hope this helps. Have a great day.

 

[Lorishopaholic]

Welcome to the forum. How long does it take to prime? When it finally primes, do you see air bubbles either in the pump basket lid or coming into the pool via the returns?

Thanks for for the warm welcome! I'm hoping to read up on pool school etc. when things slow down over the winter. ? it probably takes about a minute to prime but I switch it off and on because it scares me to let it run that long not primed. I feel like it helps it prime faster but that could just be my imagination. No air bubbles in the basket but yes bubbles come out the returns once it is primed. While it is trying to prime you can't see anything happening in the basket and once it is primed you can see the water swirl around at the the top of the lid. I hope that makes sense. Ha! Please excuse me I know I'm not using proper terms total newbie at this.

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Thanks so much! I couldn't get all your picture to load to see your check valve. Is your pump elevated from your pool waterline?

 

[Texas Splash]

In my situation, my pump equipment pad is about a foot or so higher than the pool. My check valve is at ground level just before the pump.

 

[Agent99]

So one obvious solution is to lower the pump closer to the level of the pool. I'm sure that probably isn't an option but thought I'd just mention it.

Another thing to try is to replace the flex line with a hard line if possible. Flex lines have more (head) loss than a hard line. In other words, the pump must work harder with flex than with hard piping.

And the third is the check valve. Check valves allow the flow of water in only one direction and thus prevent water from flowing the other direction. Kind of like a one way street. Putting a check valve between your pump and the flex line (suction line) such that the arrow of the check valve points TO the pump (away from the pool), can serve to keep more water in your line when the pump shuts off. When the pump is on, the valve opens up to allow the water to flow normally. Install the check valve as close to the pool as possible and slightly above the pool water line (or where the pipe is level with the pool water like Texas Splash has) will keep as much water in the suction line as possible when the pump shuts off. Now the pump will get a largeR volume of water into it when it starts than without the check valve and it should prime a lot faster.

 

[duraleigh]

once it is primed you can see the water swirl around at the the top of the lid.

Does this swirling water ever go away and the pump basket looks like it is totally and completely full of water?

 

[Lorishopaholic]

Yes, it just swirls for a second (I'm assuming it is filling up at this point) and then it looks completely full and runs as normal.

 

[duraleigh]

Yes, it just swirls for a second (I'm assuming it is filling up at this point) and then it looks completely full and runs as normal.

OK, then what you have is a tiny air leak that is allowing a SMALL amount of air into the system. You can chase it but may never find it when it's that small.

Pump running, look for drips of water on the pressure side. If you don't see any water it is likely on the suction side but I think I would leave it alone.....there's no harm.

I don't understand why you can't put the pump on a timer.

 

[Lorishopaholic]

OK, then what you have is a tiny air leak that is allowing a SMALL amount of air into the system. You can chase it but may never find it when it's that small.

Pump running, look for drips of water on the pressure side. If you don't see any water it is likely on the suction side but I think I would leave it alone.....there's no harm.

I don't understand why you can't put the pump on a timer.

Thanks! We are afraid it will burn up the pump if we put it on a timer because when we turn it on we turn the pump on and off several times to get it to prime. If we just let the pump run without turning it on and off it doesn't seem to prime. But, again we are afraid to just let it run because we are afraid of damaging it.

 

[Agent99]

FWIW, my Pentair IntelliFlo VS primes via the following way:

It starts at 1800 rpm and attempts to prime for 3 seconds. If it doesn't prime, it then ramps quickly to max rpm (3450) and attempts to prime for 20 seconds.

Assuming it primes, it goes to its normal schedule.

If it doesn't prime, it repeats the same procedure of 1800 for 3, 3450 for 20. It'll do this for 11 minutes before shutting down and posting a priming alarm.

How long do you let the pump run before getting scared and shutting it off?

 

[duraleigh]

I don't think the off and on is helping much. Simply let it run and see how long it takes to prime. If it ran two minutes and hadn't primed, I would chase that leak. Less than two minutes and I think you can live with it.

 

[duraleigh]

Simply let it run and see how long it takes to prime.

Did you do that?