is yet another pump dead???

Jump to latest Follow Reply
midtngal

midtngal

0
Silver Supporter
LifeTime Supporter
Oct 26, 2007
546
Nashville, TN
Well, now that the cold snap has lifted I went to do something about the leak in the clamp of the pump. I opened it up, sprayed silicone all over the gasket and closed it up tight. When I started it back up it only hummed. After several tries, it did prime and run normally. That was yesterday. Last night I noticed that it had not kicked on at it's alloted time (timer controlled). Today I go out to inspect and the basket is almost empty of water and the pump will not turn on. It appears to have tripped the breaker. I reset it and tried again. It only hums again until it trips the breaker. Has the weather killed my pump?? :shock: This is the 3rd pump I have had to get from Pentair due to some type of malfunction. :evil: At this point, if it is yet another Pentair problem, I think I might be better off just getting a new one of another manufacturer. This one is still within the 1 year warranty but good grief! :grrrr: It seems that about every 10 months I've had to install a new pump. :scratch:

If there is some way to get this one running I would prefer to do that at least until the warmer weather is here to stay. We've got a good couple of months more of possible freezing weather ahead and would hate to have a new one get destroyed before Spring. Thank goodness it is warmer now and not too much of a problem with it not running but I'm sure that won't last long.

Any ideas as to what's going on and possible solutions?

Thanks bunches!
Karen
 
Well, in my world....anything's possible!! This would have to be something that has happened in the last 24 hours or so. When I went out to the pump yesterday the basket was full as normal. The pool hasn't lost any water. In fact we've had so much rain I need to drain it some but obviously can't.

What would make it not take in any water and not prime...to the point of kicking off the breaker?

Here's the setup....

DSC_0115.jpg



DSC_0113.jpg


The pipe leading to the pump is where, at the point where the pump is screwed into the black PVC, there is a small leak. It has been there for a couple of months or so and hadn't been a problem until it got so dang cold as to freeze it!

So is it a consensus that this is fixable?? :)
 
See if you can turn the impeller by hand (power off!).
If it spins easily, then the problem is likely electrical. Check for a faulty capacitor or bad connection somewhere in the wiring.
If it does not spin readily, check for obstruction in the pump or motor, or bearing.
 
Thanks Ohm_Boy! I'll check this out. The impeller was fine when I opened it up the other day, but that doesn't mean something happened while it was running so I'll open her up and take a look! I'll see about the capacitor too and report back..........

Karen
 
Well....I think I've done did it now! :( I changed out capacitors and it made no difference. I opened the cover to the pump where the wiring is and didn't see anything wrong. As I was stuffing the wiring back in, the pliers accidentaly touched the receptor (I had so stupidly not turned the breaker off) and a lot of snap, crackle and pop went on. I decided to see what the damage was so I tried to turn the pump on and found that the timer is now not working. No matter how many times I turned the breaker on and off it still won't work. There no power to it since there's no display (it's digital). Have I now destroyed my timer??? Or am I lucky enough that it's just a fuse somewhere??

:grrrr: :grrrr: :grrrr: :grrrr: :grrrr:
 
I wonder if you have fluctuating voltage. You have gone thru 3 pumps :( Karen does your lights flicker in the house????? Something does not add up :-D
 
I don't think so. This last time I put the pump in I had my electrical folks come check the voltage because the pump wasn't sounding right. He said it was fine. Pentair then sent me another pump. So I guess really it's 4!! :shock: I looked it up and that was just in Sept. of last year! No, I don't have any flickering of my lights. It doesn't surprise me that this is unusual....that's my world!

This is why I'm wondering if I should give up on Pentair and go with another brand since it seems to be their products. The first pump went out because the bearings wore out...10 months. The second was this same thing as now...it froze up for no apparent reason...again 10 months. Then the 3rd one they sent me seemed to have electrical issues. It sounded like it wasn't getting enough power...kinda like an out of balance fan. He turned around and just sent me another when the electrician said that my side of things were fine. I mean good grief! :evil:

We're looking at rain starting about midnight tomorrow and going all day on Wed. I only have about an inch before it hits the coping which I assume could cause big problems with the liner. Thus the reason I need to do something about this pump ASAP! :)

Thanks for your help!
Karen
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I don't have a clue what the water table is....I've looked and not been able to find it. I'm just going to guess that it's pretty low. Drainage will be okay.If I can just get through Wed. and Thur. it won't rain again until Sun (supposedly!).

Any thoughts out there on the status of my timer...has it been zapped dead??
 
midtngal said:
I don't have a clue what the water table is....I've looked and not been able to find it. I'm just going to guess that it's pretty low.

One clue is to just observe the ground/lawn near your pool after several consecutive storms (rain). If you see puddled water that takes more than an hour or two to soak in, then your water table is likely pretty high or you have clay soils, which can have similar effects.

Any thoughts out there on the status of my timer...has it been zapped dead??

Could be. Have you used a multimeter to check intraconnections?
Click to expand...
 
Hi polyvue. Thanks for your response. I've never had ponding water that didn't go away almost immediately. Everything around the pool is either concrete or gardens. But, yes, it is clay soil for the most part. But we have had a lot of rain these last few months so it's pretty absorbant.



101_0116.jpg




I haven't done any kind of testing. I guess it's time to call in the electricians and see what's going on.............
 
Hey Karen, sorry about the latest pump problem :(

You say that the timer is digital, if so, it may have it's own fuse. Arcing out the motor should just trip a breaker or fuse (I've done it enough times :roll: :oops: ) Is there a GFI outlet on the same circuit that might have tripped?

I still haven't figured out what the initial problem was, but a free/ warranty replacement sounds like a good price to me :)

BTW - your plumbing job is Kindergarten quality :evil: The SWCG isn't installed correctly :rant: However, that's not the issue here, getting a working pump is the first priority.

Hope you can get the power back on - we can discuss the other stuff at a later date :-D
 
Aww Ted....you talk as if I might be surprised by the quality of the workmanship! If you'll remember, this is the guy that had to eventually be fired he was so pathetic! Not one thing surprises me about any problem I have with this pool. :hammer:

Funny you should ask about the GFI. I just got home a short while ago and noticed that my landscaping lights were not on. The GFI doesn't look to be tripped...it's just not on! It's one of those that has a light that comes on if it's been tripped. It had been doing that alot in the last couple of months (hmmmm....ding, ding, ding maybe?) so I bought a new one and don't ya know it stopped! So I never installed it.

I'm going to call the electric co. in the morning and get them to come see what's going on. They installed the timer so one would think if they saw a problem at the time they would have said something.

They have a plumbing dept as well so maybe I can get them to come correct (if possible) the plumbing issues.

Ahhhh....just another day in paradise! :bounce:

Thanks for all the help...as usual it's greatly appreciated. :bowdown: :bowdown:

Karen
 
Re: is yet another pump dead??? *UPDATE*

Well, the electrician came by this afternoon and he has determined that it is indeed the capacitor. He was able to get the pump started with the extra one I had hanging around (a virtual boneyard of pool pump parts laying around here :lol: ) but said it really wasn't good either. I had only tripped the main breaker not fried the timer and the whole system. :party:

So I have shut off the timer, left the pump on and will put a new one on this weekend after the rain. Oh yeah...I was able to get it to shut off and come back on a few times so that I could drain the pool some as well!

So all's well again. I know I'll sleep better...I'm sure you guys will too!! :wink: :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply