Help! How do I fix this?

[heavynleigh]

Hi! I have a Pentair 340038 Stainless Steel SuperFlo Single-Speed Almod Pool Pump, 1-Horsepower 115/230-Volt Single-Phase that I just bought and installed in June. It was nice and quiet at first but over the past couple of weeks has gotten louder. I have a DE filter, which I completely cleaned a few days ago. The day after I cleaned the filter, the pump stopped functioning.

I have some videos so you can hear/see what it's doing:
http://youtu.be/0kw-LO0hTNM
http://youtu.be/hPmavnXC5AA

It makes noise and sucks in a little bit of water then cuts out after a couple of seconds.

I've tried cleaning the filter again. I flushed the pipes with a lot of water because I thought with the de in the basket, maybe it was clogged? That didn't do anything, though I did get the water running clear for at least five minutes while flushing the pipes between the pump and the filter. I can stick my finger in there and get the impeller to spin easily, so I don't think anything is stuck in there. I certainly couldn't feel anything when I did that.

What else can I do? My son's birthday party is Saturday so this is the worst possible timing for it to be crapping out on me. :-/ Especially for only being a couple of months old. :-(

We have an inground pool that is 16'x36' with two shallow ends (~3.5-4 ft) and a deep middle (~6 feet).

 

[JVTrain]

Does the pump ever get primed? When it was running in the past weeks were there air bubbles in the pump basket sight glass? There should be none after the pump primes itself and has been running with prime for a few minutes.

I would check your reassembly of the filter to make sure it is properly sealed and not leaking. If there are leaks, it may have trouble achieving prime. When you do reassemble, fill the pump basket as full as you can then quickly close the lid to give it the best chance to prime itself.

That's all I've got, perhaps someone with more pump experience has further insight.

 

[heavynleigh]

It did get fully primed both before and after I cleaned the filter. There are no leaks from the filter, it's sealed up tight. It ran fine for about 10 hours during the evening/night after the filter cleaning. The next day, or maybe the day after that, is when it started making that noise and shutting off.

 

[heavynleigh]

Okay, so I've watched a bazillion videos. It's coming on, the impeller rotates freely, it's just not priming. Thoughts?

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Welcome to the forum

Can you please add your pools info to your signature as outlined here :lookhere: http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/165-getting-started

You don't really have to worry about the filter at this point because even if there was a problem with a seal or a leak at the filter it's on the discharge side and if anything it should allow the pump to prime easier by lessening the restriction on the discharge. It would cause you to lose prime when it's turned off but since you manually primed the pump you can forget the filter.

Is it wired for 120 or 240 volt operation ??

The impeller spins freely but have you tried to start it with the motor and impeller split from the pump so you can actually see it spin at speed ??

From the sound of it and the sight of the water going down a bit when it starts it seems the impeller is spinning but wondering if it's spinning at full speed.

Do you have it on a timer and is there a GFI in the circuit ??

 

[heavynleigh]

It is wired for 230 V operation.
We took the end cap off and watched the motor spin when we tried running it. It didn't seem to have any problems doing so? It can be manually spun on the impeller side and motor side, in either direction, with no resistance. It sucks in a little bit of water then shuts off after just a couple of seconds.

There is a timer. We usually have it set to come on about 11pm and go off about 9am.

ETA: I went into settings and added my signature info, the box is checked to show signatures but I'm not seeing mine come up on my posts, even though it's in my settings area?

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

When you say it shuts off after a couple seconds is it the thermal breaker shutting it down, trips the circuit breaker or ??

As for your pool info, are you sure you hit "save" before leaving the page ??

 

[heavynleigh]

I did hit save. The preview is still there when I go back to edit my signature and everything I typed is still there.

I think it's the thermal breaker shutting it down. The switch stays in the on position and the circuit breaker is fine. The other pump that powers the Polaris keeps running (though it isn't doing anything with the main pump out).

I called around to like, 10 pool people today to see if someone could come look at it. From my description and what they could hear over the phone, they think the motor is the problem. And of course, since we DIYed the install, the warrantly is only good for 60 days. Bah.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh hey, now it's there. Weird.