Hi Dave, the only valve I have used is the filter /backwash valve. It's a "t" handle that is so stiff it hurts my hand to operate, pulling up enough to barley rest the peg on that level is hard ,so is twisting it back to center after pushing it down..
Yes the pump strainer is full, and the pump is pumping as indicated by the 40 to 50 gpm at the flow meter
I considered a defective gage, but I get a reading of 5 psi when backwashing, so it must be working
there is another gage on the pump body at the base of the basket area. It stays at 0 psi also
Do you mind a little background? I started managing these apartments in Oct '10 There was a pool service company coming by once a week. He would be there 5 or 10 mins then leave and I had no experience, so no way to know if he was doing his job. Anyway next month we had a number of rent checks stolen (former manager boyfriend, what a knucklehead) and we took a serious blow to our operating capital. Hence, no more pool service. We just cant hire someone to to fix it or train me, so this site seems to be my best find yet. So I took the filter apart and hosed off the membranes reassembled it and added the required DE. I never looked at the gages until then so I dont know if it was registering before or not, but now it's not. I noticed an "o" ring stuck under the strainer basket in the pump so removed the plate where the motor attaches and bought a kit and reinstalled th new "o" rings (only two, the irregular shaped seal on the plate bolted to the motor and the smaller 3' or so round ring on the cone it obviously belonged. I had drained the filter for this so decided to open it again and discovered it had no,none, zero DE in the filter.All this time the pump has been running 4 or 5 hours a day and the book says NEVER run it without DE more than 2 min. So I put everything back together (no leaks) added more DE through the skimmer and everything seems fine except no pressure
Thank you for you time.
Dan and Irene