My pump has been losing prime overnight for several years (yes I know). I just did not know how to go about finding the problem. After a few months on this site my confidence and skills went up. I finally decided to tackle it today. Thought I would post my actions for others facing similar issues.
I could see a couple 1" bubbles under the cover but they were relatively unchanged and just sort of floated around a bit. However, my clear plastic lid was anything but clear after almost 20 years. I took a headlight cleaning kit to it and it cleaned up pretty darn good. I also cleaned the cover O-ring groove, the O-ring, and wet sanded the top seal of the pump housing. Put a bit of silicone grease on the O-ring and reassembled. Now I could see a million bubbles inside the pump. With the confidence it was not the lid I replaced both pump drain plug O-rings. No change.
Got out the hose and started running the water over the suction side joints. Started at the pump and worked back towards the pool. Finally hit an area that definitely changed the bubble volume. However, there were several joints and valves in this area. I turned the hose down a little to enable me to focus the water on each joint. Starting at the ground and working up through each of the 3 valves I finally found the culprit. Dried the area and put some electrical tape on that joint to confirm. Confirmed!
Now the fun starts as this joint is not going to be easy. I am thinking of attempting the heat gun method of extracting the pipe from the joints. I have used this on smaller pipes with success, but not with 2” pipe. I am open to any and all thoughts.
Unrelated question. Do they make a cap for the in-line chlorinator tee? I unscrewed the tube but it did not seem like a standard fitting so I put it back in. Since I don't have a check valve between it and my SWG I wanted to ensure no tabs ever went in it again.
I could see a couple 1" bubbles under the cover but they were relatively unchanged and just sort of floated around a bit. However, my clear plastic lid was anything but clear after almost 20 years. I took a headlight cleaning kit to it and it cleaned up pretty darn good. I also cleaned the cover O-ring groove, the O-ring, and wet sanded the top seal of the pump housing. Put a bit of silicone grease on the O-ring and reassembled. Now I could see a million bubbles inside the pump. With the confidence it was not the lid I replaced both pump drain plug O-rings. No change.
Got out the hose and started running the water over the suction side joints. Started at the pump and worked back towards the pool. Finally hit an area that definitely changed the bubble volume. However, there were several joints and valves in this area. I turned the hose down a little to enable me to focus the water on each joint. Starting at the ground and working up through each of the 3 valves I finally found the culprit. Dried the area and put some electrical tape on that joint to confirm. Confirmed!
Now the fun starts as this joint is not going to be easy. I am thinking of attempting the heat gun method of extracting the pipe from the joints. I have used this on smaller pipes with success, but not with 2” pipe. I am open to any and all thoughts.
Unrelated question. Do they make a cap for the in-line chlorinator tee? I unscrewed the tube but it did not seem like a standard fitting so I put it back in. Since I don't have a check valve between it and my SWG I wanted to ensure no tabs ever went in it again.
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