Losing prime on Ecostar

[Poollife]

I recently bought a kreppy and it's has a regulator value, I full prime the vac hose but as soon as I plug into bottom of skimmer my pump looses prime, when the vac hose is removed the pump recovers. Could the issue be no lube on pump basket ring even though I never see any water or air hiss when pumps turned off at full prime? Any suggestions would be great!



Extra info pull has drain pipe attached to skimmer and only one line to pump. Pool built 1972 1.5" pvc as I can see and pool deck has almost no settling

 

[duraleigh]

when the vac hose is removed the pump recovers.

It sure sounds like you have an air leak in the vac hose.

 

[Poollife]

It's a brand new hose, and I've tried to keep the whole hose under water also, I will try removing the hose piece that goes through the skimmer throat, any others?

 

[JasonLion]

It really does sound like an air leak, but the leak might be somewhere else. When the hose is attached there is more resistance to flow, which increases the amount of vacuum the pump pulls on the suction side. That could be enough to let air leak in somewhere else, even though it does not normally do so.

The most common place to look after the hose is the seal on the pump strainer basket lid. Make sure the seal is free of nicks and scratches and properly lubricated and the lid is tightly sealed.

 

[Poollife]

Have yet to lube pump ring because pump was new this past July and no issues, will lube and report back this evening.

 

[Poollife]

Well its morning and not PM but I finally figured it out. On the ecostar the oring sits deep into a lid cavity which is hard to reach with a fat tube so being rushed instead of using a qtip I just put it on the actual pump where the oring makes contact, although this didnt solve the problem it did make the bubble in the pump basket smaller and allowed the lid to lock onto pump more securely, still not being able to figure out the problem I hooked the vacuum regulator valve up to the skimmer with no hose connected to it and the pump started to cavitate again, so i removed the stepped rubber gasket on the regulator that makes a more tight fitting to the skimmer and it worked with no hiccup, I do not know why this would cause the pump to cavitate but I will post photos of the rubber stepped gasket i removed to help someone else in the future. Thanks all that have helped me, again and again.


-Shaun