Main pump humming (electrical sound) and not working anymore
- Thread starter Hairyet
- Start date
I don't recall you mentioning a water leak before. If you had a significant leak it may be the cause of the motor not starting. If that is the case a new capacitor will not help. Windings and bearings that get wet when they are not supposed to can corrode and prevent the pump from working. I would hate to see you throw a bunch of money into parts for a pump that may be dead. Did the pump make a lot of noise when it used to run?
Hi, sorry for the delay in responding and updating everyone. I did seriously consider the variable speed pump replacement, but it wasn't in the budget. I got a quote for $1500 installed, which is over $500 less than when I got a quote last year.
Sorry Zea3 about not mentioning the leak before. We didn't know the flooding we were seeing was from our sprinkler system or the pool pump, and well, actually, didn't even suspect the pool pump was the culprit.
To make a long story short, when I had it apart and was ordering the diffuser, cap, impeller and a new set of o-rings, the gentleman on the phone said, for $38 I will figure out which parts it needs, put it back together and test it. Then it is the $38 plus any parts. I detached at the timer and brought it in. So, turned out only the diffuser was necessary. Everything else was in good shape. About $70 for the whole thing (saved more because I didn't need all the parts I thought I needed, and wow that cap is expensive at this shop - $65 - and what appeared to be the same on Amazon was $15, but couldn't be sure and wouldn't come for two weeks, making me think I would make up for it in pool chemicals at the back end and possible grief because it wasn't actually the right one).
So I used pool lube on all the rings and put it all back into its cradle and got it clamped in and rewired. It started fine, sounded great and got primed quickly. Let it run a minute and then bled the air out of the filter. Left for about an hour and came back to turn on sweep and found water gushing out of the filter. Yikes! Scared me half to death, but not until I turned it off and thought about it. At first I thought I needed to tighten the clamp around the filter, but when I thought about it further, I realized the pressure was high in the filter and that it might be a safety to have the clamp not as tight as possible (besides the issue that it might crack the filter housing). Seemed odd when I walked past the hot tub that it was full of green sludge. I guess having the pump off and the water drained from the filter must have caused the filter to clog with the cellulose filter media. So I backwashed it well and reloaded it. All was fine at the filter.
But, while the pump is still quiet as can be, it is leaking steadily from the front. I don't know if I have a granule of something in the o-ring, put the clamp on wrong, or the filter incident caused some kind of damage. I am going to take it off again and reseat it and see if that changes anything.
Sorry Zea3 about not mentioning the leak before. We didn't know the flooding we were seeing was from our sprinkler system or the pool pump, and well, actually, didn't even suspect the pool pump was the culprit.
To make a long story short, when I had it apart and was ordering the diffuser, cap, impeller and a new set of o-rings, the gentleman on the phone said, for $38 I will figure out which parts it needs, put it back together and test it. Then it is the $38 plus any parts. I detached at the timer and brought it in. So, turned out only the diffuser was necessary. Everything else was in good shape. About $70 for the whole thing (saved more because I didn't need all the parts I thought I needed, and wow that cap is expensive at this shop - $65 - and what appeared to be the same on Amazon was $15, but couldn't be sure and wouldn't come for two weeks, making me think I would make up for it in pool chemicals at the back end and possible grief because it wasn't actually the right one).
So I used pool lube on all the rings and put it all back into its cradle and got it clamped in and rewired. It started fine, sounded great and got primed quickly. Let it run a minute and then bled the air out of the filter. Left for about an hour and came back to turn on sweep and found water gushing out of the filter. Yikes! Scared me half to death, but not until I turned it off and thought about it. At first I thought I needed to tighten the clamp around the filter, but when I thought about it further, I realized the pressure was high in the filter and that it might be a safety to have the clamp not as tight as possible (besides the issue that it might crack the filter housing). Seemed odd when I walked past the hot tub that it was full of green sludge. I guess having the pump off and the water drained from the filter must have caused the filter to clog with the cellulose filter media. So I backwashed it well and reloaded it. All was fine at the filter.
But, while the pump is still quiet as can be, it is leaking steadily from the front. I don't know if I have a granule of something in the o-ring, put the clamp on wrong, or the filter incident caused some kind of damage. I am going to take it off again and reseat it and see if that changes anything.
I took the pump off and it looks like it is wet and was dripping from an area on the pump side of the seal plate. I guess I will take to back to the pool shop and ask them to check if I need a new seal plate.