Loud Pump

Jun 15, 2008
582
S.E. Wisconsin
The saga of opening continues...

Put two holes in the bottom of the pool getting it out of the garage. Patched from the bottom and they seem to be holding. No noticeable water loss.

Releveled ground under HOTT sun and 92* temps. Expanded deep end of pool to encompass whole pool minus one foot around the edge. :mrgreen:

Went to put solar panels and pipe back on roof(blew off last fall) and found out an elbow is cracked so I have to cut off 6 fittings and rebuild that section with new pieces. :rant:

Pool finished filling today and I reconnected everything and attempted to start pump. Only Humms. :( Unplug, open, spin impeller by hand, lossens up after a few turns. Put pump back together and turned it on. Pumps water fine but is now leaking like a sieve between the motor and wet end. So much so, that there is water FLOWING out the air vents in the back of the motor. :shock: Shut it off immediately. Take it to pool place to get the correct shaft seal. Pump is made by Jacuzzi which went out of business a few years ago(I knew that). Both stores say they can't get the part and offer to sell a new pump for $209.00.

Tell them no thanks, head home and start looking on Craigslist for a used pump. Can't find ANYTHING worth looking at. Head over to some guys house(lol) that we bought a solar panel from a month ago who had a pump and filter(hoping he still has it). He did so we had him plug it in for half-a-second to make sure it still ran(his pool blew apart last summer) and it did. Brought it home and hooked it in, filled with water and plugged the thing in. Flipped the switch and the water began flowing :party: but at the same time I was greeted with a horrible squealing type sound. It's so loud you can hear it from the front yard (about 150 ft away with a house and garage in the way). :cry: So that's where I'm at. I attempted to oil the bearings a bit with motor bearing oil but no change in sound.

I shut it down after letting it run for about 20 min. Did I do any damage during that time? I'm guessing the loud sound means I need new bearings on the motor. Is that correct? Can this be done at any electric motor shop or does it need to be done by the pool place? Also, could the noise be from the shaft seal? Will the seal need to be replaced if the bearings are?

Also, will I do damage to the motor running it with the squeal? I'd like to begin heating the pool tomorrow.(water is about 70 after filling) but I'll hold off if I'm damaging the pump by running it.

Hoping for no more snags this year(knock on wood),
Adam

Lastly, can I get a ballpark of what it will cost to have this fixed?
 
I would take it to a motor shop and have them replace seals and bearings. Also sometimes it could fix itself and the rust can knock itself loose. Many pool places use local motor shops anyways so you'll probably save money taking it directly to them.
 
I would only run it for a couple minutes to see if it gets quieter, if it stays the same or gets louder you don't want to run it as the sounds you are hearing is basically friction and more friction = more resistance and that will shorten the lifespan of the motor. Call around to motor shops, some places have the ability for you to drop the motor off after hours in case you can't make it there during store hours.
 
I called every motor shop an pool shop in the phone book. All motor shops were closed. Most pool places said to find a motor shop to do bearings. Finally, I got one pool guy that gave me a motor shop to take the pump too. He said that's where he would take it himself. Long story short, either the name of the place wasn't right, or the location. There was a motor shop near where he said, but they were closed. I'll call tomorrow but I doubt he'll be open on Sunday(VERY small place).

Until then, I rigged up a small Intex pump to circulate and filter the water. :goodjob:
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Adam
 
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