Help! It's cold here and my pump is not pumping!

[dlwxman]

I live near Atlanta and it's unseasonably cold here (forecast low 20F). My pump was circulating earlier today but now it's not. Pool surface is now icing over and I'm very concerned that my pipes will get damaged. Any advice?

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One other thing. The pump motor is running but water is just not moving.

 

[Texas Splash]

It could be early signs of some internal icing in the filter. Unless you see something very obvious preventing water from flowing from the pump through your filter and to the returns, at this point it's probably best to shut everything down so that you don't damage your equipment. If you can, drain the water from the pump basket via the pump's drain plug(s), and also your sand filter if possible to prevent freezing (expansion) damage. Cover any exposed plumbing and equipment with a tarp or blanket - anything to help keep the bitter frost off of the pipes until this Grayson mess is over. Also try to protect your multiport and any 3-way valves as there have been a few of those showing some damage by other members.

Tomorrow, inspect everything in better daylight and go from there. Once the temperature gets up over freezing consistently, you can fill things up and test the system again. The pool water should be fine for a while with the cold temps.

 

[dlwxman]

Thanks for the quick reply! Since the pump was running on anti-freeze mode (air temp below 37F) I would have to turn off the power to the system to shut down the pump. However after I read your reply and went out to do that, I noticed the water had started circulating again albeit with air bubbles. Hopefully that will clear up soon. As a precaution I covered everything anyway. Warmer days ahead....at least for a few days.

 

[dlwxman]

So pump ran normally since my last post...even this morning. Late this afternoon I noticed that, once again, pump was running but nothing coming from returns. Outside temp at the time was in high 30s so I wouldn't think freezing would be a problem at that time. I did notice that the pump filter basket had hardly any water in it. Maybe a leak somewhere?

 

[mknauss]

Check your skimmer basket. There is a restriction somewhere in your suction.

 

[dlwxman]

The skimmer basket was full of debris two days ago when I first noticed the problem. I removed the debris from the basket and put on a new sock. There was still a lot of debris floating around so I had my son clean it out. He used a plastic cup. This evening I looked at it again and I noticed the valve at the bottom was in a different position than usual. Maybe the cup scraped the bottom of the skimmer and moved that valve. I've never known how it works at the bottom of the skimmer. However the pump basket had a fair amount of debris again this evening when it usually takes a few months to get that much. So I'm guessing that I need to adjust something at the bottom of the skimmer to limit debris from moving through the system.

 

[mknauss]

Your main drain is plumbed to your skimmer? Sounds like it. If you are having a leaf issue you can adjust the 'valve' to draw from the main drain. Normally it will automatically do that if your skimmer basket gets plugged.