Hi All; First post here. I have an in ground spa that came with a house I bought. The spa is up and running but with a problem I can't seen to solve. All the pool equipment is above ground, pump, filter and heater. The spa is in ground. I get a rapid build up of air in the Pentair Nautilus filter tank when the spa is running. My guess it is from the return line from the spa to the pump which is sucking in water which is infused with air bubbles. Opening the filter relief valve every 15 minutes or so to let the air out is a pain. I have tried cutting back on the air intake which is of no help. There is an intake at the bottom of the spa and an intake skimmer. My guess now is that this setup is not right. If there was a pool also, the intake could be in the pool with no problems of air getting in. One other note is that when I opened up the filter tank to check the element, there is nothing in the tank itself. It was empty. Any ideas would be appreciated. Have a great day.
Air in Filter Tank
- Thread starter jim249
- Start date
- May 3, 2014
- 58,932
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Welcome to the forum!
I would suspect you have a suction side air leak. The most probable spot is the pump basket lid. Check the oring and make sure it is properly lubed with non teflon silicone lubricant.
The Nautilus I believe is a DE filter. Are you saying there are no internals in the filter?
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry and consider reviewing the entire Pool School eBook.
I would suspect you have a suction side air leak. The most probable spot is the pump basket lid. Check the oring and make sure it is properly lubed with non teflon silicone lubricant.
The Nautilus I believe is a DE filter. Are you saying there are no internals in the filter?
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry and consider reviewing the entire Pool School eBook.
Thanks for your response. I just checked the o'ring on the lid and it is dried out and cracked. Off to the pool store tomorrow to get a new one. There are no internals on the filter, Just the stand pipe. I have been using silicone grease for all the o'ring installs and have put it on the lid o'ring before. I will read the two suggested links tonight. Thanks again.
Jim,
Welcome to TFP... A great place to learn all about your pool equipment, whether live you are in the middle of a river or not...
Check out this link... Pentair PacFab Nautilus DE Filter Parts
Your filter should have something similar inside... It is basically a series of grids that are held together with a manifold on the top and bottom... If you don't have something like this inside your filter.... then you don't have a filter. I used the link as a reference, without knowing the exact filter you have I can't say exactly what parts you will need...
Please post some pics of your pool equipment so that we can make sure we are comparing apples to apples.
Thanks,
Jim R.
Welcome to TFP... A great place to learn all about your pool equipment, whether live you are in the middle of a river or not...
Check out this link... Pentair PacFab Nautilus DE Filter Parts
Your filter should have something similar inside... It is basically a series of grids that are held together with a manifold on the top and bottom... If you don't have something like this inside your filter.... then you don't have a filter. I used the link as a reference, without knowing the exact filter you have I can't say exactly what parts you will need...
Please post some pics of your pool equipment so that we can make sure we are comparing apples to apples.
Thanks,
Jim R.
Thank you Mknauss. I picked up a new o'ring for the suction filter and installed it. After two hours of running I opened the air relief valve and got a very brief shot of air then water. Three things I noticed after the new o'ring was installed, you can see were it is actually making contact with the lid, the pump primed really fast and the pump is running quieter than before. It was most likely cavitating a bit. I included a couple of pictures. One of the spa running and the other of my equipment. The filter is now next. The one I have is hard to get parts for and they are expensive since they are no longer being made. There is a steady stream of used pool equipment on CL, so a used one might be in the works. Thanks again!
- May 3, 2014
- 58,932
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Be wary of used pool filters. They are pressure vessels. So if compromised in any way, they must be discarded.
I would think a smaller cartridge filter would work great. Could you fill out a Signature so we would know what pump, spa volume, etc and we can help guide you on a filter.
I would think a smaller cartridge filter would work great. Could you fill out a Signature so we would know what pump, spa volume, etc and we can help guide you on a filter.
I picked up a FNSP36 for 50 bucks. After cleaning up I noticed a condition called fiberglass blooming. Never heard of it before until now. I have read online how a grid assembly for a FNSP will not fit in a FNS filter. The grid assy fit right into my FNS48 housing. The FNS36 has a public flow rate of 1.5 gpm/sq.ft. or 54 gpm and a residential flow rate of 2.0 gpm/sq.ft. or 72 gpm. My spa has 6 jets with a flow rate of 10 gpm each for a total of 60 gpm. So it looks to me that this grid assy would work just fine in my FNS48. I will not use the FNSP housing as I know nothing about its past history and the blooming problem although the person selling it replaced it with a sand filter and told me there were no problems with it. The problem I have now is getting that big jam nut loose on the inside down in the bottom of my FNS housing to replace the o'rings. Thanks for all the kind help so far. The spa I have is a Viking Pools Tahoe.
Last edited: