Air bubbles in pump strainer: Looking for experienced eyes

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evanw

evanw

Member
May 24, 2025
7
Orange County, California, USA
Pool Size
9600
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Hey folks,

New to TFP and to pool ownership; I purchased a house built in 1980 that had an existing pool (I believe resurfaced in 2023) and I've been systemically going component-by-component to get an understanding of the system.

I wanted to see if I could get some experienced eyes on the bubbles I'm seeing in the pump strainer - I don't have enough experience to know if this is a potential for concern or not. I recently replaced the strainer lid and o-ring, (thinking they might have contributed previously), but it's about the same now as it was before.


Here's some more information about my setup:
  • 9,700 gallon in-ground outdoor pool in Southern California - segmented into a spa (about 700 gallons) and pool (9,000 gallons)
  • Plaster surface
  • Using liquid chlorine
  • The pump appears to be working fine: It primes just fine and holds prime consistently
  • Pump is pulling nearly 100% from the skimmer, and it has one of those plastic things to create a vortex
  • Pool level is ample, halfway up the skimmer opening
  • The lid of the pump strainer is hand-tight
  • Filter is DE, cleaned (not by me) about 2 months ago; nominal pressure is 15 psi
  • No obvious issues that I'm aware of
Edited to add:
It looks like the pump must have been partially replaced in the recent past:
As I mentioned above, I did just replace the strainer lid (the old one was heavily oxidized and I couldn't see into it), and while I was in there I replace the o-ring (which I lubricated with PTFE silicone lube) and replaced the cracked strainer basket. The amount of bubbles present now are about the same as they were before I replaced those items. I could probably clean the area where the seal rests on the strainer body a bit more, but it wasn't too dirty as far as I could tell.

I don't think the amount of bubbles is getting any worse - it's been at this level for several months.

Anyway, I thought some of your deeply experienced eyes here might help me get a sense of whether I should dig harder into this, or leave it be and keep observing it.

Thanks for any advice!

Evan
 
Last edited:
What model pump are we discussing?
Click to expand...
Ah sorry I'll edit my original post to include that.

It looks like the pump must have been partially replaced in the recent past:

The motor (?) appears to be a Century Pool Pump Motor, 1.65 HP - I believe this one: https://www.regalrexnord.com/produc...-208-230-115-v-3600-rpm-56y-frame-dp-bpa450v1

And the pump strainer appears to be a Pentair WhisperFlo 011513 which I believe is https://lesl.a.bigcontent.io/v1/static/whisperflo-datasheet

(I apologize if I'm misstating any terms here, I'm pretty new to this.)
 
I see the video now.

If the air bubble stays at that size and causes no problems I would not worry about it.
 
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