Hayward filter - 39 PSI

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Dilbydog

0
Silver Supporter
Jan 14, 2018
78
Las Vegas, NV
Hello Everyone,
First time pool owner here. We just purchased a home with a 13k gallon in ground with a SPA. The previous owner was fastidious in keeping the property in top notch condition, so I’m a little concerned about this issue popping up in the first 30 days. Here’s a little background on the system:

Salt water pool
Hayward Swim Clear Cartridge Filter (Model # C4030)
Hayward Pool Heater (H350FD)
Goldline Remote System
System is set to keep the temp at 60, and runs for (2) four hour blocks per day.

We moved in about a month ago, and last week peeled the pool cover off. We were presented with a pool with a fair amount of tree leaves on the bottom of the pool. After trying to remove them with the “pool net” I hooked up the vacuum and went to town. Once all the leaves were removed I pulled the vac house from the bottom of the skimmer and found the tube to be plugged with leaves. These were removed, however there didn’t appear to be any leave visible in the vac opening at the bottom of the skimmer. Checked the screen at the pump and found very few leaves in the basket. Removed leaves at the pump screen, primed system and started everything up. Fast forward to this weekend, the service light on the heater has illuminated, but there are no error codes. The screen reads LO when not in operation, which I’ve Googled and appears is normal. When running b0 is present, which I’ve read is normal as it means the system is being “bypassed” or operated by the remote system. While poking around I noticed the pressure gauge on top of the filter was pushing 40 psi, and about 20 psi over the pre-set upper limit. So I removed and cleaned all four filters, re-installed, started up system and no chage to the pressure. Hoping the cartridge elements were past their prime (they are only 3 months old) I replaced them with a new set the previous owner left. Again no change. I am assuming i’ve created a plug in the system from my leaf cleaning incident, and that I need to get a service tech out snake the line. Are they’re any other thoughts? This is a newer system, installed in 2014 and the last thing I want to do is stress and shorten the life of the components.

Thank you,
Eric
 
Welcome to the forum!

That amount of pressure is very unusual. Does the gauge go back to zero when the system is off? What was the pressure before you vac'd the leaves? The leaves cannot get by the pump strainer basket and thus should not effect the pressure of the system.

Are there valves after the filter that might be closed?

Can you add your location. Southwest is a bit vague. A city and state is very helpful.

Can you fill out a signature? See Pool School - Getting Started

Take care.

- - - Updated - - -

Also - you should never run a pool heater with water temperature below 68F unless you are heating and maintaining that water well above 68F. The condensation in the firebox of the heater will destroy it quickly. There is no reason to keep water at the temperature.
 
Welcome to TFP! Good to have you here :)

Does the pressure gauge read zero when the system is off?
How is the flow from the return jets in the pool?

More experienced help will arrive as well, but I think those are questions they would have as well.

Adding a signature is very helpful here. Instructions are in a link in my signature below - "read before posting"

If it were my pool, I wouldn't heat to keep it at 60. I suspect your dry climate is better than mine, but I still think condensation could be a risk in the heater unless you're heating to swimming temps. It also sounds like an unnecessary cost when you're not swimming anyway.
 
Thank you MKNAUSS & needsajet.. I’ll fill out my signature in the morning when I can see all the parts and pieces. To answer tonight’s questions.. yes the gauge returns to 0 when the system is off. It also spikes to the 39psi range when I fire the system back up and the purge / bypass valve on the top of the filter canister is open. Unfortunately I didn’t have the forethought to look at, or record, the filter pressure prior to the vacuuming of the system.

Ill check the return jets in the morning.

I havent made any any changes to the system, valve position or otherwise. I’ve been heeding the recommendation of the previous owner, where he said everything was perfectly set up. However, given the info you both provided, I take it I should shut off my pool heater until I am ready to use either the pool or spa on a regular basis? I planned on slowly educating myself on “everything pool” over the winter, but this has thrown me for a loop.

I’ve shut the system down for the time being as I’m concerned it the system is truly operating at that pressure I maybe placing unusual stress on the system.

Im located in Las Vegas, NV.
 
It would be best to leave everything off until you can determine what is causing the high pressure.

I bet the previous owner used the heater so that the SWCG would generate all winter. Not very wise. Best to turn off the SWCG when water hits 60F and use bleach. Only need to add a bit of bleach every few days. Then about March 1 your water will warm enough to use the SWCG again.

Looking forward to more info. Be sure to put Las Vegas, NV in your Location in your Profile.

Take care.
 
How does the the flow from the return jets in the pool feel?

Maybe post a couple of pictures of your equipment pad from different angles, making sure we can see all the valve positions and pipes.

The strainer basket in the front of the pump should have stopped anything from going downstream and causing a blockage, so maybe we can check valve positions and see something.
 
Probably a valve misconfiguration.

39 psi is maximum pressure from your pump, which means that the flow is probably completely blocked.

Also, you never want to vacuum directly into the skimmer line.
 
needsajet said:
How does the the flow from the return jets in the pool feel?

Maybe post a couple of pictures of your equipment pad from different angles, making sure we can see all the valve positions and pipes.

The strainer basket in the front of the pump should have stopped anything from going downstream and causing a blockage, so maybe we can check valve positions and see something.
Click to expand...

Really appreciate the help.... Here are some photos showing the current pump / heater plumbing set up.
 

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That's a NorthStar pump. Are you sure that it's 2.7 hp?

Are you getting flow at the returns?

Remove the salt cell to see if it's clogged.

Unscrew the unions and look in both sides. The blades clog easily.
 
JamesW said:
That's a NorthStar pump. Are you sure that it's 2.7 hp?

Are you getting flow at the returns?

Remove the salt cell to see if it's clogged.

Unscrew the unions and look in both sides. The blades clog easily.
Click to expand...

Removed cell & flushed, there were a few debris, didn’t seem excessive. The pump housing says Hayward and the motor housing has a sticker stating “Total HP 2.7”. The actual data plate on the motor claims 2.0 HP. This is not a vfd drive.
 
Your return valve shows 100% of water going to the in floor cleaners. You do not show in floor cleaning in your signature. Try moving the valve to return your water via the spa.
 
In the last picture, there's a black box valve actuator. On the bottom is a small three way toggle switch. Click the switch from forward to reverse. The valve will begin to rotate counterclockwise. Once it moves 90 degrees, click the switch to the center to stop the valve. Then see what the pressure is.
 
Sorry for the dumb question, how do I know if I have in floor cleaners? There are two “screened” openings in the bottom of the pool. During the leaf incident, there was defiantly a concentration of debris around these screens.

- - - Updated - - -

Rotated valve and pressure dropped 10psi to 29.

- - - Updated - - -

Prior to rotating the valve per James’s request. Started system, did not feel any flow from the single jet in the pool. Suction at skimmer was present, a single caretaker valve was bubbling in the spa. Otherwise, system was calm enough to ski on.
 
The screened openings are probably the main drains.

The pump is way oversized and will cause high pressure even in good operation.

The pressure is still too high. Try a new gauge. Maybe the heater is clogged?

There should be a screen directly in front of the Caretaker valve. Open the union and check the screen.
 
Dodger said:
Can you post a picture of the floor of your pool and/or spa? If you have Caretaker in-floor pop-ups, they look like this (come in various colors from white to black to blue to grey):

Polaris Caretaker 99 High Flow Cleaning Head ONLY

The top of the pop-ups will be flush with your plaster floor and could be impeded or clogged.
Click to expand...

Theyre somewhere between a Blue and Grey. I’d love to post a photo, but I can’t figure out how to remove the previous ones from my file manager and I’m at the 250kB max
 

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