First timer on IG pool startup

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atlas71

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Jun 13, 2016
24
Chicago suburbs , IL
Hello everyone, great forum and 1st post. Have been at it for a few hours now getting the cover off and getting all the winterization plugs out of the system. The plugs are out of the skimmer and the return ports in the pool. Also, all plugs our out of the two paramount systems and cartridges are in ( i cleaned from last year).

I dumped 2 bottles of liquid shock in and then went and put a hose down all the tubes by the motors to purge the air before I filled up the baskets and started the pumps. I have primed the main motor (the paramount motor o-ring broke, so I did not try that one yet) but it is not sucking at volume and pace as it needs to. Basically water is trickling in. I have not installed the nova new cartridge yet and I have disconnected the power to the salt generator for now.

As I have read all the posts last few days, One thing my system does not have a is a multi-port valve. Not sure why, but i would guess they just use the drain from the big cartridge filter.

Anyway, tried getting the pump to get up to speed after a few hours today with no success. I don't see any ports I may have still closed, but who knows. The cartridge filter I purged the air, have a steady stream of water, and holds about 20 psi. Curentlly stumped. Going to try to get two new lids with orings tomorrow and try to fire it up again.

Will post pics later from my phone for those interested. Did I miss anything potentially in the checklist?
 
Welcome to TFP!

The show sig box under the text box was not checked on your first post. Once checked it should stay checked. Pebble surface and gunite pool are what you have. All of the red ball valves and the blue ball valve are closed. Rotate them 90° to open them.
 
pooldv said:
Welcome to TFP!

The show sig box under the text box was not checked on your first post. Once checked it should stay checked. Pebble surface and gunite pool are what you have. All of the red ball valves and the blue ball valve are closed. Rotate them 90° to open them.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the welcome! I did open all the valves and confirmed water was getting in and the filter is full and free of air. But i'm not getting the pump basket to fill all the way up. I took a video and am trying to get it processed show what is happening. I have the returns open to go back to the pool as well.

What I can't tell because i can't see is the returns in the pool on the bottom to see if they put anything in them to block them for winter? I still have two cover plates but the water is too green to see to the bottom.
 
ok, I got the second pump for the paramount primed and it's cooking :) full seal and clarity on the pump. The main pump for the skimmers and drain is not build pressure. I used a drain king from the pump side and the skimmer side. and opened the air again on the filter housing. Still getting our coming out the top as well, but I can't get it to 'bite' yet. Only have the skimmer closest to the pump open a quarter turn to try to build some pressure. Will check back in an hour or so...
 
Well. I cant seem to get the main pump to create full suction. The vacuum pump is working perfectly. The main and the skimmers will just not build enough pressure. Im seeing about 25psi on the cartridge filter but i am not getting pressure on the mains and skimmers. I used a drain king on both skimmers, from both sides and cant figure it out. I wrapped saran wrap around every joint but dont think its a piping air leak. Any other thoughts of what i can try? I have replaced the o ring on the cap but no success. :(
 

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Here's my detailed update for those searching.

The solution was obvious but if you are new to pools like me required some detective work to put all the pieces together. Here's what I learned.

My cleaner system primed fairly quickly and was working effortlessly. My main drain and two skimmers did not. The pumps are Pro HP and I saw them working last year, so I know the system worked. As I was trying to get it to prime I noticed that once the main drain was opened and I opened the closest skimmer the water in the tank dropped. Then I noticed my pressure on the cl460 was 30psi whether I had clean filters or not. I purchased new filters anyway since I did not know what the status was of the older ones. I also had a lot of pressure when I took the cap off (after redoing the manifold to get rid of air leaks I found). How I finally figured out I had a blockage on the return side is when I emptied the filter to replace the cartridges. I noticed that the pump immediately cavitated and had full suction, but lost it the minute the filter filled all the way up. At that point i started working back from the return lines and starting taking everything off. When I took the chlorinator off, I found a plug left over from winterization that was in the return line. I removed it, and my system started up instantly and started moving water.

Now I will take a sample to my pool store tonight and see what I'm dealing with. This is a salt water setup so more to come. I've put about 6 gallons of liquid shock in last night and color is much brighter this morning. still have cloudiness, but has only been about 12 hours.
 

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