duraleigh said:
PS - I had a white check valve like yours for about 10 days.....I threw it so far away from my pool I considered entering the discus toss in the next Olympics.
I quite literally laughed out loud at that! What check valve would you recommend? One of the Jandy ones like on the other line?
Now a little history...
The pool was built fall of '11, so last summer was the first season for it. The check valves were put in by the builder in last July because I griped and complained to him about what was going on before they were in, as I was having a heck of a time pulling prime every single day, needing to run the pump full tilt for 5 minutes and sometimes longer.
After that, it worked okay and the basket got filled, etc, although I still had the overnight thing. By this time, I had fixed the water leak around the SWG and an O-ring issue on the valve in front of the pump (it was strung across the body, instead of around it, see below) and installed an actuator on the valve for the deck jets and things operated decently. The only thing I had really noticed afterware was that the deck jets had lost some power, but didn't really care all that much and didn't think it had much to do with my issues (don't use them all that much, can always readjust the actuator). Of course, that is another potential pressure-side leak.
In any case, I had a company close for me (not quite ready to do it myself) in the fall and had them back to open this spring. I didn't use the builder because I was tired of all the screwups and nonsense. To give you a quick flavor, I had to argue with them about automation because they insisted it would only work if I had a remote - I personally wired the pump and heater to the ET4 panel and got the lights working.
Anyway...when the new company came out in the fall, they drilled drain plugs below the check valves. After opening, they put the pump on program 2 (which is 1500rpm, I run it at 2200, max is 3450) and, shortly after they left, the pump lost prime. This was my first huge clue there was something wrong, of course. Long and short of that is some teflon tape around the drain plugs and I don't have giant bubbles flowing through that check valve anymore. But, where I used to run at 2200, with no prime time needed at the end of last year, I need a minute or so at 3400rpm to prime and the basket won't fill at 2200.
So, suction side, the only thing that is really new is the drain plugs and I have to assume that the teflon tape is doing the job (bad assumption?) Last week I put a fresh set of filter cartridges in (plan to rotate them over time) and cleaned and relubed the lid to the pump basket, but the non filling the basket was happening before that anyway. Should the drain plugs on the pump need anything like teflon tape or would those even have anything to do with any of this?
Sorry for the novella, but I wanted to at least show where I am with this. I'd like to think I've sort of addressed the stuff that I've touched, but maybe not. Maybe the drain plugs (below valves and/or on pump) should have something besides teflon tape? Should I just go get another o-ring for the valve - could that have started to fail by now?
Ugh...gotta head off to work - someone's gotta pay for this pool! Thanks so much for all your (collective) help!