A huge mess

[biscuit]

Hi, New member and I will introduce myself in the "skimmer" section after this post. It enough to say that right now I have a huge mess.

I purchased a foreclosed home with a swimming pool that has not been maintained. I had a pool expert come out and inspect the equipment a few weeks ago and he said the equipment was in good working order. It is about 15K gallons and uses a sand filter with zeolite.

The pool is brackish green and rather gross so I have that to deal with that and I look forward to learning about the cheaper, grocery store, products I can use to keep it up once I get it running. This leads me to my problem and the reason I am here seeking advice.

I can not get the pool to circulate. I have seen it running and I have a bit of experience with pools but not much. When I flip the switch the motor comes on but thats it!

There is a secondary basket right before the impeller and I have been able to take the lid off of this, turn on a hose, and start a back wash cycle. This works and cause the backwash to occur. However I can not get anything to happen with out the hose "forcing" water into the impeller.

What should I do next? Let me know if you need any clarification on the process or the equipment and thanks in advance for any help.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

The first step is to "prime" the pump. This is normally done by opening the lid on the pump strainer basket, filling the basket with water, closing the lid, and turning on the pump. After a little while, not more than a couple of minutes, the strainer basket should be full of water and the pump should be running smoothly. Don't run the pump dry for more than perhaps two or three minutes at a time. It overheat and be damaged.

If there are valves other than the main valve, they may need to be in specific positions for this to work. You must have at least one return line turned on, you should have exactly one suction line turned on. The main valve should be in either filter or circulate position.

If that doesn't help, can you tell us more about your setup. Do you have other valves? If so a picture might help. Is the pool water level at least half way up the skimmer? Have you removed any winterizing plugs from the skimmer and return ports? Have you replaced drain plugs? And anything else you can think of that might help.

 

[biscuit]

How many time should you have to "prime the pump"? I have tried about a dozen times.

I have the equipment in the "filter" position. If I open the lid on the pump strainer basket, put a running hose into it, and turn on the pump it will both circulate and backwash depending on where I have the valve set. With the lid on I get nothing!

 

[JohnT]

You need to make sure you have at least one of the valves from the skimmer or drain open, and any winterizing plugs removed from the pool.

 

[biscuit]

What do you mean by "one of the valves"? I have the filter handle set to "filter" and there are no winterizing plugs. Not sure we have to winterize here in S. AZ!

 

[JasonLion]

Many pools have lots of other valves, apparently yours is one of the ones that doesn't.

Priming usually works the first time, but taking two or three tries is not unusual. Over a dozen tries and still nothing means something is wrong.

There might be something blocking the skimmer or the pipe between the skimmer and the pump.

 

[Isaac-1]

If the seal is bad around the clear lid on the pump it will suck air and not prime, run your finger around the rubber gasket to see if it has any debris stuck to it or breaks. Pictures would really help here.

Ike

 

[denisbaldwin]

Can you take a picture of your equipment pad and pool and post it here? Would help us diagnose for you if we saw what you were working with.

 

[biscuit]

I will get some pictures nd post them when I get a chance. Thanks for the help so far.

 

[biscuit]

So I never took any pics but I do have a funny story and a working pool pump.

I spent about 5 hours last saturday and basically took the entire filter assembly apart in a vain effort to get it going. I failed. I decided to try one more thing on Sunday. I replaced the o-ring on the lid of the basket directly in front of the impeller. WOOOOSSHHHHH she came right to life! All I needed was a .50 rubber ring! Oh well, lesson learned. Off to read about how to kill the green stuff and maintain my pool!