2 dead pumps in 9 years - Concern is now on the plumbing

[jbuckley21]

Hi all, this is my first post.

I bought my home with pool in 2007. The pool is approximately 40,000g and a standard square with rounded corners shape with 2" piping. both a 60sqft DE filter and heater are inline after the pump. the pool has two skimmers and a bottom drain, with 4 returns. the equipment is sitting ~15ft away from the edge of the pool and level with the ground on two concrete slabs. there is mulch around the equipment, but covering the pump.

I replaced the "dead on opening" Jandy that came with the pool in May 07 (~ 5 years old). Replaced with a Hayward Super pump 1.5hp, which died last weekend (3 years old) . I am adding a Pentair variable speed for a number of reasons.

I received the pump last night and started to look through the material. The book notes that the following "Do not install 90° elbows directly into pump inlet or outlet. A valve, elbow or tee installed in the suction line
should be no closer to the front of the pump than five (5) times the suction line pipe diameter (i.e., two (2)
inch pipe requires a ten (10) inch straight run in front of the suction inlet of the pump). This will help the
pump prime faster and last longer.

My piping is 10" at best before i hit the intakes and the three way valve elbows the intakes to be inline with the pump intake, could this be a cause of the two pump failures?

The pumps have been exposed to the NJ summers (rain) and potentially to the sprinkler system, could this have shortened the life?

I can post some pics tonight if that might help. I am trying to make sure I dont have a design issue with the pool and blow a much more expensive pump.

We have had other wierd issues, such as not being able to keep chlorine up each year when we open, due to low Cyranic acid. I have had to add each year to get from 25 up to 50. I have read, once in, it should not go down. I do have to add water when I open, but never more than maybe 5% of volume.

Sorry for the long post. Appreciate any insight

 

[Bama Rambler]

Pictures will help, but I doubt that the plumbing will shorten the life of your pump.

The CYA loss problem is a dfferent issue and you cna read about it going away over the winter sometimes by searching the forum. It does happen but can't be predicted.

 

[mas985]

The pumps have been exposed to the NJ summers (rain) and potentially to the sprinkler system, could this have shortened the life?

Yes.

But how do the pumps fail? When you say dead, do the pumps make any noise prior to failing or do they simply stop working? Have you tried to turn the motor shaft of the pump?

 

[jbuckley21]

The Heads up on the CYA link was huge, thank you! I expierience huge CYA loss and FC burn each year to open. Now I have a huge concern regarding the cause and what i can do to combat during the winter. Also my pump is down and the pool is out of chlorine and we have 80+ weather her in NJ the next few days, so this just lit a fire under my @$$ to try and get the new pump in asap.


The first pump (Jandy ~2002-2007) would not turn on, I did not check motor (due to inexpierence of all things pool) however our pool guy, who is fairly reliable, suggested replacing entirely.

The Hayward super pump, was failrly loud at the outset. Appeared to vibrate quite a bit. The pumps have never been anchored to the concrete slab, however we did put rubber matting underneath the Hayward to combat vibration (I wonder now I that would have been a large contributor?). It increasing got louder, and this year when we started in, we had the pool guy listen over the phone and he said the bearings were shot. I continued to run until I could order a new pump, but it finally (siezed) as it will no longer turn on. I will do a post mortem on it to better understand what happened.

Could exposrure to the elements cause the bearings to go so quickly? is it possible it was just a lemon?

 

[mas985]

The environment can have an effect on pump life but there are plenty of pool owners in NJ that don't have the same issues either. The vibration though could certainly have an effect on the pump. First, if properly balanced, the pump shouldn't vibrate much but if the pump isn't bolted down and allowed to vibrate excessively, then the vibration could most certainly shorten the life of the bearings. Currently, my pumps are not bolted down but they don't vibrate all that much either.

 

[Guest]

I just bought a cover for my new motor at the local Leslie's for $16. I think that exposure probably led to problems I had with the old pump, in addition to sitting outside wrapped in plastic for 2 years after the former owner moved (which the manual specifically says NOT to do). Mine sits close to the garden sprinkler as well as too close to the filter drain so hopefully this will help prolong its life.

I purchased the exact same pump I had as it was the easiest thing to do (requiring no mods) plus I found a really good deal on it.

I also have to add a lot of CYA every year, and it does make the intial shocking a little more difficult for the 1st week until the CYA dissolves. This year has been a particularly hard year to get started as I had to replace the pump and had other electric issues as well as filtering problems after wind storms. Hopefully those problems are all behind us now, but I was looking at the amount of pollen on a glass table and realized how hard that filter has to work to keep the pool clean.