Air Bubbles with Solar

[Dabrodas]

You guys have been a tremendous help, thank you! I just successfully installed my new Hayward Tristar 900 and the pool is up and running.

I now have some questions on air bubbles. I was advised that air bubbles in the pump lid are not good for the system.. true?
I have a solar system that I manually move (automation and sensors not working) to a single story roof. I found that if I prime and then run the pump around 2500 RPM, I can eliminate any air in the pump lid. Still get champagne bubbles in the pool, but nothing major.

Now, if I try to take advantage of the VS, and lower the RPMS to 1800, I seem to get air bubbles back in pump lid.

What is even more interesting, if I close the solar, prime the pump, and run at 1000RPM, I don’t have any bubbles in the pump lid, but I get a constant of LARGE bubbles in the pool. Even with the pump around 1759-1800 and the solar CLOSED, I get air issues after priming

I’m trying to get thoughts on how best I can use the advantage of a VS pump, while supporting my solar... without having to manually adjust it every day. Ideally, I would like to leave the solar on 24/7, but then at low RPMs, I get major bubbles and almost two inches of water drop inside the pump lid. Is this going to hurt anything or cause any issues?

If I want to turn off the solar, should I just close the service valves as well to not deal with the air issues as the pump cycles through different RPM

thanks for any advice!!

 

[jimmythegreek]

That's a Hayward not a pentair VS btw. Usually a major drop like that is a dry seal on the lid. Get some pool lube and apply to the pump side lip. The gasket in the lid is tucked up hard to apply there

A single air bubble will develop no matter what with a VS at slower speeds. You should only need about 1800 to 2000 for a single story solar array. What solar control do you have? Best to diagnose and get it working manual gets old fast.

 

[Dabrodas]

That's a Hayward not a pentair VS btw. Usually a major drop like that is a dry seal on the lid. Get some pool lube and apply to the pump side lip. The gasket in the lid is tucked up hard to apply there

A single air bubble will develop no matter what with a VS at slower speeds. You should only need about 1800 to 2000 for a single story solar array. What solar control do you have? Best to diagnose and get it working manual gets old fast.

Thank you! Yes, updated to Hayward.. too many pumps on my mind. Appreciate the insight. I have the Aqua Star 2 controller.. to start diagnosing, I believe I should start with the sensor replacement.

 

[jimmythegreek]

Yes start there. You can ohm the sensor out to test or just replace them they are cheap. Check the wite for continuity if ita spliced onto a longer wire to be sure its not a broken signal wire