Jandy pump - advise on replacement

[dayhiker]

I have an 8 year old Jandy Stealth 1.5 hp pump. I went home for lunch, and while there, checked on the pool. The pump was running but no water was moving. I look in the basket, and it's empty. I can feel heat. I turn it off. THe water in the basket was at least 150. The PVC running to and from the pump was starting to discolor. I cooled it off and tried to get things going again. It would run, but wouldn't sustain the movement of water. I imagine I have an air leak somewhere. I'm assuming that this pump is toast. Should I replace it with what I have or are there advantages to getting a variable speed pump? Would this one be ok? http://www.zodiacpoolsystems.com/Products/Pumps/Variable-Speed-Pumps/VS-FloPro.aspx

I will likely order something today so that I can be up and running again before the 4th.

 

[jblizzle]

Unless you have very expensive power, you would likely be better off with a 2-speed pump and a 1HP should be fine, like the Pentair Superflo that I have. The smaller pump will be cheaper to buy and cheaper to run, especially on low speed.

BUT ... if the pump was running but no water was flowing, clearly you have a problem that is not necessarily related to the pump ... like a clog either before or after the pump which was preventing water movement.

 

[dayhiker]

I wound up ordering a Jandy 2HP VS FloPro Variable Speed Pump. I do have solar panels, and that one came in either 1hp or 2hp only. I think the elevation difference between my pump and the panels is around 20' or so.

Tonight I'm going to check all of my fittings. It was working fine yesterday. All of the baskets had a small amount of leaves, but nothing drastic. I really wonder if one of the fittings had slowly vibrated loose and and caused this. The pump will turn on. Any advice on how to isolate whether the pump just isn't sucking versus an air leak preventing it from sucking?

I am going to take everything apart that I can take apart. I do have 2 spare O-rings for the piping connecting to the pump. I'll use those in my testing.