Freeze damage to pump

[Bcaparoon]

I am new to the pool ownership arena. I had the pool and equipment inspected before I purchased my home about 7 months ago. Everything checked out. Winter came on and so I thought I was getting the equipment ready for the winter but apparently didn't do a good job and the motor burned up due to a crack in the pump because of frozen water.

I find out all of this because now spring is here and wanted to get it ready for summer. Thats when I prime the pump and all the water just pours straight through to the ground. The pool company comes out and says that not only do I need a new pool but I need a new whip and all new plumbing because the previous owner had used some indoor plumbing pipe as well as some patching material. The qoute is about $1850 for a new single speed 2hp jandy pump, whip, plumbing, some valves and labor. I price checked everything they gave me an estimate on and are adding to the cost of everything and labor is $125 an hour. I am not sure this is the going rate or not but seems a bit high at least for me since I just bought the house and have no money to spend .

Now that I set the stage, I have been researching how hard it is to simply replace a pump and everything I read and all the videos I see is really easy. I am a handy guy. I can put a lift kit on a jeep and build a bed but when it comes to PVC and electrical work I have no experience. The electric I think I would be fine. I've put in switches and build my own computers so I think I could flip a breaker and read a wire diagram. The issue I have is all the PVC. Since everything is glued it looks very unforgiving. It's not like you can start cutting and if you make a mistake just recut a bit. You could really mess things up. And my plumbing is not done very well as it is.





I'm not sure if you can tell anything by the images or not but I was hoping for a little feedback as to whether or not this looked like a difficult plumbing job?

Any feedback is helpful and if it does look bad then any references on an inexpensive pool repair person in the dfw would be great as well.

 

[peirek]

Hello and welcome to TFP.

If you are not comfortable working with PVC an option may be to buy the new pump and call a plumber to plumb it up? The big problem I see is on the suction side of the pump. No pipe to work with.... It may require replacement of the valve.

It seems you do not have freeze protection on the pump? That is something you will need to address before next winter. Either auto freeze protection or manual (you turning pump on) freeze protection or draining equipment.

Note: If the motor is still good you might consider buying the pump housing to save some dollars. You still will need to deal with the PVC unfortunately.

Good luck!

 

[CJadamec]

1850 for a pump some plumbing and 5feet of wire sounds a little steep to me, but I do all my own work normally.

If you know how to cut and glue PVC and very basic wiring this should cost you about half what you were quoted in parts.

 

[mknauss]

Consider getting at least a two speed pump. A single speed pump is a huge electrical user.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Welcome to TFP Bcaparoon

I agree on the pump. You'd be better off with a two speed as you'll save a lot of money in operation. How big is your pool and do you have any water features ? Do you need a 2 horse ??

If you can do the lift kit the PVC shouldn't be that intimidating. Just assemble it dry and make sure stuff fits, add a union or two for easy removal/repairs later and only start gluing when you know it's all fitted up.

 

[CJadamec]

If you decide to go thru with plumbing it's not as hard as it looks. We should be able to walk you thru it.