Polaris P19 Quick Disconnect = Not so fast to install

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T

t2b2r2d2

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Apr 24, 2012
1
I walked into my backyard today to notice my water level was down a bit.....about 2 feet! The pump was trickling along, so turned it off to avoid further damage while I looked for the 'leak'.

After just a second of inspection, I noticed the hose from my Polaris booster pump had popped off the quick disconnect. I looked around and finally found part of the locking collar that is supposed to keep the hose connected. I guess the sun finally made the plastic brittle after 6 years....

I ran to the pool supple store and bought a kit which included a reinforced hose and quick connects. The instructions say to screw the connects onto the pump and then push the hose onto the quick connect until it is flush against the hose barb base. OK, that is easy enough. The next step says to 'pull and twist the sleeve on the quick connect over the hose as far as possible' and that is where my problem comes in. Apparently, I am too wimpy to 'pull and twist' the sleeve into place. I worked up a good sweat 'pulling and twisting' to little effect. I know it is not pulled up enough, because the retainer clip will not fit where it is supposed to go.

So after searching Google, Youtube, and the TFP boards, my question to you gurus is: What is the trick to pulling the sleeve into position?
 
I usually find that if at first I do not have the clearance to put the retainer clip on it is more due to the fact that the fitting is not screwed onto the pump inlet/outlet far enough. Careful though, as you do not want to crack the inlet/outlet fitting. Working up a sweat getting these to fit properly is common!
 
Hate those things...

Sweat and swear words work for me...ususally.


If I come across those, and I have to replace, Usually just hard pipe it if I can, and add unions. Schedule 40 will handle that load, and that Polaris flex hose is expensive!
 
This is my response to the Polaris quick connects for the booster pump. I just spend over a day and a half playing with this technology and have come to a rather simple and time efficient decision. Do not attempt to use them. They were not well thought out and impossible to lock in.

I have called several pool shops in the area and they said it was a difficult task. SO why do it. One tip was to boil hot water in the microwave and dip the end in right before you attach it to the fitting . It will go on the fitting easily and you can move the quick connect into position comfortably. Good tip. At that point I said why all the hassle. Sure you can get it on with the method. THE pain comes after …………..when you try to disconnect it. It will be tight to the hose and impossible to pull off.

Save your time and money and just hard plumb it in. The two ends are screws, in the intake you can use a one inch pipe with 3/4 screw fitting and the out will be 3/4 with the same size screw fitting. Much simpler and easy to replace or just cut and add collars.

I wish someone had this out there three days ago. The job looks professions and uses much less space while holding the pump in pace without secured bolts. When you use the hoses you have to make sure you do not bind them.

PS-customer service and contacting technical help is fruitless. Every day is a issue with the IVR…

Hope this helps
 
You would think that after 40 years in the pool business Polaris could do better than this?
What a piece of engineering garbage!

I spent less than an hour on the pump replacement and half the day on the quick connect fitting and still could not get it to lock.

First you need to make sure you get an absolutely flush right angle cut on the hose. And then it needs to completely bottom out on the barb fitting. yes difficult but not impossoble. It needs to be pushed all the way on. Then I was able to slide the sleeve collar a liitle bit on. If the locking clip was about half the width, I think it would work, but there is no way, and I mean no way you will be able to slide the sleeve far enough to get the red locking clip on. In my case it is about half the width of the clip. I called it good and it seems to be holding just fine, without the clip in place.

I really dont feel comfortale with this final state, so I am going to try the boiling water trick. Otherwise I might need to hard plumb it.

Really, Really disappointed with Polaris!!! Did I say that yet?
:hammer:
 
I noticed that the supply connector to my Polaris pump was leaking. I took the part off and it was cracked in the inside of the threaded section. After reading the previous posts I decided I did not want to attempt replacing the old Polaris quick connect part with a new one. I went to H D and purchased a nylon adapter from their plumbing department. One end had a 3/4" threaded connector (make sure you get the proper thread type) and the other end was 'barbed' for attaching to rubber tubing. I also purchased a radiator hose clamp. I used several wraps of teflon tape on the threaded end. I didn't even bother to cut the partially flared end off the Polaris tube (which was very stiff) - I only pushed it all the way on the 'barbed' end and tightened the radiator clamp in about the middle of the 'barbed' end. My original concern was that if my inexpensive replacement part were to break that my pool would empty (my equipment is below the floor of the pool). But then I realized that the more expensive Polaris part had already cracked half way round and a new one might do the same. Total repair cost less than $4 - not including the time - about 10 minutes, not including the trip to H D. This repair was to the supply side of the pump.
 
You have got to be careful with those barb fittings. The polaris pump puts out some pretty good pressure, and I had a client that had a similar setup come off the polaris pump while running the sweeper, and what you are afraid of happened...the pool drained by about 1/2 (still don't know how the main pump kept prime..he swears he was running the skimmers) and the dirt aound his equipment pad washed - I had to bring in 2 yards of soil to make it respectable again. 3/4 pvc fittings and two unions are my preferred method after that fiasco.
 
I just tackled this problem last night. My pump inlet hose had a severe kink in it. I just used hot tap water and soaked the hose in it for a few minutes.
It made the hose plyable enough to push on the barb fitting, and made sliding the sleeve over the fitting a lot easier. It does take some twisting and turning
to get the sleeve far enough out to put the retainer on, but it does work a lot better when hot vs. cold.
 
Bringing this post thread back from the past. I just spent hours in the pouring rain, thunder, and lightning wrestling with the Polaris "Quick Connects". I was replacing a Pentair booster pump with a Polaris one... the old pump was hard-plumbed and when I was looking at the task in front of me I was mad at the original pool builders. Now I know hard-plumbing was the better and easier route to go.

Getting the hose on was a bit of a wrestle but nothing compared to trying to get the collar in place with enough space for that darn red lock spacer. Of the four connections I managed to get only one even close. Since it was pouring at the the time, my grip was not good. I then tried prying the collar in place with a screw driver. Then a pry bar. I tried a pair of pliers. Then a larger set of pliers. All the while getting more and more soaked, and risking lightning strikes. I eventually gave up, figuring they just weren't going to work and hoping that as long as the cleaner (which I didn't even get close to installing) and panel setting stayed off.

What a HORRIBLE design. Automobile engines use simple to secure hose clamps. Why can't Polaris???? How did Polaris get a leadership position with such a horrible design?

Next weekend I will redo everything with PVC pipe unless someone has a better suggestion?
 

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^^ Would switching the hose kit to a different brand work? The hose kit from Pentair looks like it uses a different connector. And the one from Hayward looks like a hose with four automotive hose clamps. Hard plumbing will undoubtedly be cheaper, but the idea that you can pull off the pump seems to have benefits.
 
Answering my own question based on a call to a local Leslie's Pool supply... no, you can't simply swap out the Pentair or Hayward hose kits since the threaded part of the connector is different. I will try the "heating up the end" approach, and if that fails, hard plumb the darn thing.

Polaris starting out with one huge strike against it...
 
Wish I had read this thread earlier. After a year of normal operation, my hose flew off the top of the pump. (Red retainer clip still in place). Probably lost 2,000 gallons or water. It totally soaked the inside of my pool shed -- it's lucky no one was electrocuted. Unfortunately, it fried my $400 Pentair iPhone Interface Kit.

Not only is the barbed connected a poor design, but so is having the water shoot out the top of the pump. If it went straight out or down there would have been a lot less damage. Hard to think of a worse direction than up.
 
Some tips for easy install...take a file and quickly put small bevels front & back on the ends of the red retainer clip, that will allow you to start the clip into the 'almost wide enough' groove/gap created by pulling/twisting back the collar, then will spread the gap to proper width and lock into place as you push the clip in....the wedge principle! As for pulling/twisting the collar, use a pair of mechanics gloves for better grip & protection of palms, and put gasket lube on the outside of the hose end before pulling back collar.
 
My story - booster pump volute cracked. Ordered parts including the hose and quick disconnect thingys from Amazon. Took more time to try and pull the darn collars up around the hose than it did to install the new volute and plumb it in. Finally resorted to using ss hose clamps around the hose where it fits over the barb. The collars barely budged no matter how much I pulled on them. I would have hard piped it in like it was previously, but the top line comes in at an angle, and I didn't have faith in myself that I could get the angles and lengths of pipe correct. In retrospect, I probably should have taken my chances and just hard piped it in. Oh well. At least I saved about $300 by doing it myself :)
 
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