Help Hayward stops pumping. Air building up

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E

Elementalwindx

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Jun 27, 2015
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Every 24 hours I'm having to unplug my pump, let air pressure come out the top vent valve, and restart my pump. What happens is it starts with 8psi and as time goes on air gets into the pump skimmer and water stops flowing and pressure rises a good 15 to 20psi.

Any idea what could be happening? I see no water leaks? The only thing I can guess is air is leaking into the pipes thru the pump skimmer seal or one of the incoming pipes right before the pump.

Any ideas? I'm very new to this. Thanks.
 
Hello and welcome! if you suspect air is entering your suction side, you need to review the following: Pool School - Suction Side Air Leaks

That's usually separate from your air pressure rising. Your pool equipment is not shown in your signature. What equipment so you have? Have your backwashed your sand filter, or cleaned your cartridge filter lately? So after reviewing the link and updating/answering these questions, maybe we can narrow things down for you. :)
 
Texas Splash said:
Hello and welcome! if you suspect air is entering your suction side, you need to review the following: Pool School - Suction Side Air Leaks

That's usually separate from your air pressure rising. Your pool equipment is not shown in your signature. What equipment so you have? Have your backwashed your sand filter, or cleaned your cartridge filter lately? So after reviewing the link and updating/answering these questions, maybe we can narrow things down for you. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll check that thread out.

So far I've taken the Hayward EC75a apart to acid bathed the filter tubes, and of course heavily sprayed them down. They looked like they had never been cleaned before. The rubber seal sku: ECX1105 that is sandwiched between the tube sheets was a little misshapen but I was reading if that seal was bad, then you'd see water leaking out which I do not.

I just noticed there are several more rubber seals in this setup thanks to this page ( Hayward Perflex EC65, EC65A, EC75 & EC75A Filter Parts
) . I guess if I have to, I should probably order them all (totaling almost $100 -_- ) but I was hoping I could figure it out without throwing money at it like that.

Also where would you recommend getting replacement parts such as this for this hayward item?

I do not know what kind of pump it is, I imagine it was some form of package deal. It's sitting on that Ec65 system iii base also listed in that page above. I think the pump is 1hp.
 
Texas Splash said:
Hello and welcome! if you suspect air is entering your suction side, you need to review the following: Pool School - Suction Side Air Leaks

That's usually separate from your air pressure rising. Your pool equipment is not shown in your signature. What equipment so you have? Have your backwashed your sand filter, or cleaned your cartridge filter lately? So after reviewing the link and updating/answering these questions, maybe we can narrow things down for you. :)
Click to expand...



Ahhh after reading that page, it makes sense and that is also what I was thinking it should be. Where can I buy the pump skimmer seal from? I cannot seem to find that one seal online.
 
The pump skimmer seal is actually an O-ring. If you don't see a part number on the pump basket or have it available, you should be able to at least measure the diameter or the o-ring and purchase on locally at a pool store or on-line at numerous pool parts store or even Amazon.com. When you search, search for pump basket O-ring.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, and of course make sure you have lube designed for the O-ring to help it seal. Never use Vaseline.
 
I picked up a seal kit locally for my hayward pump, and I did the same steps as done in this video: Hayward Super Pump Seal Replacement - YouTube . Holding my breath and hoping this works. Pump has been on for a little while, but I won't know if it's fixed until tomorrow, or even a week from now.

The seal with the spring on it fell apart in my hand so hopefully that was the problem. The metal base, and rubber mate were stuck to the shaft and the rest came apart.

The kit also had the square seal for the pump skimmer. :)
 
Ok well I found out the previous home owner has a complete second set of a pump and stand/housing in the garage. I took the lid off it, and looked at the differences. The lid thats been on this working setup has no lip/flange for the gasket to sit in, but the old one in the garage did have a lip, so I swapped them out, but still no luck, however I've been able to crank down on the 2 knobs that tighten that lid down each time I go to check on it, and I'm wondering if it may somehow be coming loose letting air in. Or maybe the pump is just tired and going bad? I'm linking a couple pictures, 1 of the pump lid when it stopped returning water, and 2 a pic of the entire setup.


Any ideas would be helpful at this point. I'm at loss. I even took some of that sealing tape and wrapped it around the joints of the piping thinking that might be the cause but it was not.

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Found a diagram showing the plumbing of this pool system. In my pool I have 1 skimmer, and in this diagram it shows another suction port near the skimmer, however that port is covered by a liner even though a ring is screwed into the pool. Not sure why? If anyone has an idea that would be great if you voiced it. If you look at how the suction side is piped, in my first pics above, it makes me wonder if the air in that piping furthest to the left which goes to the covered suction port in the pool, I wonder if that air is causing it to lose prime somehow?

I think I'm going to hit up a hardware store and re-plumb that piping asap.
 

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Hi E. I new to your problem but you, in your initial post mentioned that your filter ran at 8psi but eventually goes up to 15-20 psi? Air leaks into the pump system never cause an increase in pressure. The pressure always goes down. Increased pressure is always caused by blockage on the discharge side of the pump. Could it be that you are attacking your problem from the wrong angle?
 
OldPoolMan said:
Hi E. I new to your problem but you, in your initial post mentioned that your filter ran at 8psi but eventually goes up to 15-20 psi? Air leaks into the pump system never cause an increase in pressure. The pressure always goes down. Increased pressure is always caused by blockage on the discharge side of the pump. Could it be that you are attacking your problem from the wrong angle?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure :/ Pressure starts out at 20psi now when I first start the pump. It's weird though. I wonder what could be blocking it. I cleaned the filter taking it completely apart. I put the exact amount of DE required back in thru the skimmer. Perhaps maybe the check valve between the filter and pump is faulty?
 
Well took apart the filter again to check that check valve. I don't know what a good one looks like but this one looked to be the problem. I couldn't get that 90deg plastic pipe to come out the inside. It appears to be stuck however I hammered out the rubber of the check valve to open the pipe. Now everything is flowing great at 10psi. Just going to suck if I ever turn off the pump to have all that de come flowing back haha. I'll order the replacement part and fix it later next week.
 
Elementalwindx said:
Well took apart the filter again to check that check valve. I don't know what a good one looks like but this one looked to be the problem. I couldn't get that 90deg plastic pipe to come out the inside. It appears to be stuck however I hammered out the rubber of the check valve to open the pipe. Now everything is flowing great at 10psi. Just going to suck if I ever turn off the pump to have all that de come flowing back haha. I'll order the replacement part and fix it later next week.
Click to expand...

Well I spoke too soon :( W-T-F. It will start off at 6-8psi, and gradually go up to 20psi to where water flow halts within 30min. I've bumped the filter dozens of times now and let the gunk go out the water removal pipe, and started it over again without adding DE about 5 times now. It only takes 30min for the flow to die off. This week the pool turned green rather fast and the filter sleeves are caked in green de.

I'm at a loss as to what I can do.
 
I think you're right. I left the pump on overnight. Pressure got up to 18psi but it is still pumping strong even this morning. I'll try and get this pool chemistry back into shape asap. Got family wanting to swim today, but today doesn't look like it will happen haha.
 
I don't have one of those nice test kits, so I decided to throw some chemicals into the pool in efforts of SLAMing it to get the algae to die and hopefully break off that DE/filter tube in the filter. Slowly I'm learning. I've ordered a test kit and hopefully it'll be here in a week so I can properly add chemicals instead of wasting money. I added 10 gallons of that 7.68% great value bleach to the pool and within 30-60min the pool was blue again. Now I just have to figure out how to make the pool clear again.

Do you guys think I will have to flush out the filter several times to get that algae to get out of the system or will SLAMing the pool break it up enough to stop clogging the filter?
 
Yes, normally filters need to be backwashed many times during a SLAM. Especially the first few days. 2
We recommend backwashing when pressure rises 20-25% from clean pressure.

To go from green to blue to clear maintain chlorine at shock level for your CYA until the pool clears up. Test FC and add more at least 2-3 times per day.
 

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