Have been doing lots of reading through of old threads, but not quite able to identify my issue.
My pump has been losing prime almost everyday for the past few days. It will sometimes pause and reset itself and regain full prime, but most often, it will just gently suck in water and not reach full performance. Basically the housing/basket will just barely any water visible, not pumping fully.
I thought it might be a leak, but wonder if it's the pump itself? The pump is at ground-level (single speed 1.5 HP Sta-rite) and connected directly to the skimmer (no weir flap). Please see pictures album here. Only one suction point at the skimmer and no valves/diversions from the skimmer to the pump. There's plenty of water and no vortex. We usually use a suction side vacuum (The Pool Cleaner), which I've disconnected for now. Replaced the o-ring gasket on the pump housing lid and inspected the drain plug.
The pump failed about six months ago, but reading up here at TFP, replacing the start-up capacitor fixed things and it was running smoothly. We had the pump rebuilt about ~eight years ago with seemingly similar issues of operating at a bare minimum speed, so I'm not sure if it's failed again.
I've never opened up the pump itself myself, but wanted to see if there might be something else awry first.
Thanks!
My pump has been losing prime almost everyday for the past few days. It will sometimes pause and reset itself and regain full prime, but most often, it will just gently suck in water and not reach full performance. Basically the housing/basket will just barely any water visible, not pumping fully.
I thought it might be a leak, but wonder if it's the pump itself? The pump is at ground-level (single speed 1.5 HP Sta-rite) and connected directly to the skimmer (no weir flap). Please see pictures album here. Only one suction point at the skimmer and no valves/diversions from the skimmer to the pump. There's plenty of water and no vortex. We usually use a suction side vacuum (The Pool Cleaner), which I've disconnected for now. Replaced the o-ring gasket on the pump housing lid and inspected the drain plug.
The pump failed about six months ago, but reading up here at TFP, replacing the start-up capacitor fixed things and it was running smoothly. We had the pump rebuilt about ~eight years ago with seemingly similar issues of operating at a bare minimum speed, so I'm not sure if it's failed again.
I've never opened up the pump itself myself, but wanted to see if there might be something else awry first.
Thanks!