Just had solar installed... Now pump losing prime!

[stevet1]

So I just had a FAFCO solar system installed and started up. The next day, i found that my pump lost it's prime. The company came out for some extensive troubleshooting.... and found that the problem was with the water sampling line that is for the Autopilot TC chemistry controller.


pool suction ---->pump -----> filter -----> Solar heater -----> gas heater ------> Autpilot manifold -----> pool return
^ |
------------------- Autopilot TC Chemistry sample line <------------------------------------------------|


So when the solar system is activated, it needs to purge accumulated air out of the solar lines, but instead of going to the pool, air is pumped into the TC sample line, forming a cycle of increasing air, causing pump to lose prime. The problem is confirmed by closing the valves to the sample line, then the solar circuit air is correctly purged into the pool and the pump does not lose prime.

So the question is, how to fix this situation? I have a separate circuit for the water feature that is completely independent from the main pool circuit (separate pump too). Water feature used rarely. Can I just connect the sample line discharge to the low pressure side of the water feature pump? Is there a better solution? I need to do this quickly before my chemistry goes out of whack... Thanks for any help.

Stephen

 

[JasonLion]

The complete solution is to move the probe cell intake line from the manifold to a point after the pump/filter and before the split to the solar system. That way it will always get water straight from the filter, without any of the air from the solar system. That will require a new hole in the pipe and a way to patch up the old hole.

 

[rmklaw]

Mak and pentair have been troubleshooting the same problem of not being able to prime an Intelliflo VS+SVRS. Pentair believes that it is the SVRS. I just shut off the two sample lines and the priming problem sees to have gone away. I need to talk to the Poolpilot people to see if the sampling line can be relocated.