Urgent help needed!!!

[QuiltinMom]

We have been working on our AGP build for a couple of weeks now. Most of the time has been hauling water. Long story short...we are on a well and have used pond water and some "city" water that we have hauled in. Watet is green and getting greener. We managed to hook up some temporary plumbing and had the sand filter doing its thing.

We had to shut the temporary plumbing down to be able to put in the skimmer. WE ARE NOW UP TO THE SKIMMER and have our hard piping set up to start running but for some reason we cant get the pump to prime now. What are we doing wrong? The only thing different is the skimmer vs a flexible hose dropped over the side of the pool.

We have put water in the sand filter.
We have filled the pump basket with water. If we take the lid off the pump then the water just rushes in and overflows. As soon as we turn the pump back on it sucks the basket way down then doesnt seem to be drawing much more water in.

Its like there is an air lock that we cant get out.

There is suction in the skimmer but it seems pretty weak.

What else do I need to check?

What are we doing wrong?

We really want to get this thing going.

THANKS!!!!

 

[JasonLion]

That sounds like there is an air leak somewhere in the suction side plumbing. There is an article in the Solving Problems section of Pool School on looking for suctions ice air leaks.

 

[JohnT]

I'm betting some kind of restriction in the line to the pump or the skimmer itself, or the pump is too big for the pipe feeding it.

 

[QuiltinMom]

We have been working on our AGP build for a couple of weeks now. Most of the time has been hauling water. Long story short...we are on a well and have used pond water and some "city" water that we have hauled in. Watet is green and getting greener. We managed to hook up some temporary plumbing and had the sand filter doing its thing.

We had to shut the temporary plumbing down to be able to put in the skimmer. WE ARE NOW UP TO THE SKIMMER and have our hard piping set up to start running but for some reason we cant get the pump to prime now. What are we doing wrong? The only thing different is the skimmer vs a flexible hose dropped over the side of the pool.

We have put water in the sand filter.
We have filled the pump basket with water. If we take the lid off the pump then the water just rushes in and overflows. As soon as we turn the pump back on it sucks the basket way down then doesnt seem to be drawing much more water in.

Its like there is an air lock that we cant get out.

There is suction in the skimmer but it seems pretty weak.

What else do I need to check?

What are we doing wrong?

We really want to get this thing going.

THANKS!!!!

 

[Richard320]

Just as a guess, I'd say the water level isn't far enough up the skimmer yet or the flap is sticking and the pump sucks it dry almost instantly. Or the hose is weak and collapses with all the suction on it.

 

[QuiltinMom]

Looks like my thread posted twice.

Topics merged. JasonLion

Thanks. I will go find the article.

The best way to describe it is like a toilet flushing. It gets water then kicks up to a rolling boil like it should be then the basket is low on water and waits to fill up again.
It worked fine when we were on the temporary plumbing. We have 1 1/2" hard pvc plumbing and the equipment is maybe 15-20 feet away from the pool.

 

[donnal]

If the the water level isn't high enough in the skimmer try taking the weir out of the skimmer and that may allow enough water to the pump until you can add more water to the pool.

 

[sargent]

Could be that the water level is not high enough and air is getting in the pipe at the skimmer.

 

[QuiltinMom]

I think the water level is high enough. The flapper is floating and bobbing like it should. The skimmer doesnt ever go dry or lose water but you can't feel much suction in their either.

It is all rigid pipe so I dont think it can collapse.

I read the info in problem solving in pool school about finding an air leak and we are going to inspect for an air leak. It would have to be the pipe on the skimmer because that is the only thing that changed.

 

[QuiltinMom]

Reporting back in. We did two things. We took out a piece of the pvc under the skimmer and replaced it with a union. Probably a good place to have one anyway. We had seen some tiny bubbles coming up from the skimmer line, so may have had a leak there. We also hauled in more water. I personally think it was the water level like some of you suggested. donnal recommended taking the flapper out and see if that made a difference. I just swung it out in to the pool and go a rush of water. That made the pump prime and run like there was no problem at all. So we temporarily trapped a mini beach ball in the trapper to keep it open and hubby went and got another 800+ gallons of water.

It has been running great since 7pm and hasn't had one hiccup.

THANKS for the prompt responses. We were about at our wits end after the last couple of weeks.

So, now on to tackle the green tinge that has developed.

THANKS again!!!