Minor leak at pump and broken drain plug question

[wayner]

I have a minor leak somewhere in my pump - see the attached photo. I only noticed it because the concrete under the pump is always wet in approximately a 1 foot diameter. I realize that sometimes there is a leak when the pump is started or stopped, but the pump has been on for over 24 hours with no rain. The leak appears to be around the centre of the pump as the water is evenly distributed in all directions, it doesn't seem to be coming from one side or the other. There is no visible flow of water so I think that this is a very low volume leak. The leak does not appear to be on the union from the intake or outflow. Could it be a crack in the overall pump? How do I diagnose the problem, or can I just let it be since it seems to be such a minor leak?

I thought that the source of the leak could be the drain plug, so I tried to tighten the drain plug, which is plastic, and when I was doing this the plug broke apart, but the threaded part is still in place. The leak does not appear to be coming out of the drain plug, but now what do I do? Do I have to fix this? My pool is closed up by a service in October each year, but I am not sure if they take the drain plug out. Do I need to fix it or just leave it like this? Do you need to use the drain plug? Or can you just use a shop vac or sponge to get rid of the water when closing?

 

[wayner]

Answering my own question about the drain plug, here is a Youtube vid where the woman used a blow torch to heat up a screwdriver and stuck it into the core of the plug.

 

[BassPlayingDude]

Needle nose vice grips works too.

 

[drsipe]

The water leak may be the pump shaft seal.

This is an easy repair, you can do a search on You Tube for videos on Hayward seal replacement. The parts are available (depending on your model) from Amazon or inyopool.com

 

[wayner]

Thanks @drsipe - any idea how critical it is to do this now? What is the downside if I let it go for a few months? And is the shaft seal the most likely culprit rather than one of the gaskets?

 

[drsipe]

The leak will eventually get into the motor and damage the motor bearings.

There is no telling how long it will take to damage the motor, but from your description the leak does not sound bad yet. Please bear in mind, the seal replacement is about a 30 minute job.

 

[wayner]

OK, thanks. I did watch a couple of the videos and it is a decent amount of work, and potentially in an awkward location unless you move the wiring.. When you are taking it apart does it make sense to replace the other gaskets, O-rings, etc?

 

[drsipe]

Absolutely, get a seal kit, it contains all the seals. I have done the seal kits on numerous pumps and I've done them in place when the original install made pump removal difficult and I've taken the pump out of the system for seal replacement. It may look difficult/time consuming but it's very simple. One word of warning, don't touch the ceramic portions of the shaft seal, but if you accidently touch the ceramic, just use a lint free cloth and alcohol to clean the ceramic before reassembly.

 

[wayner]

So it appears that this was a shaft seal issue. My local pool shop came and replaced it - the service call was only 45 minutes.