Background: I bought a house with an in-ground pool a month ago and I'm trying to get it up and running right now. I'm an engineer with a strong background in fluid dynamics. I'm pretty handy around the house and cars, so I feel like I should be able to handle this with some guidance from more knowledgeable people.
I had a company come "open" the pool - basically they installed the ladder and railing, threw in some chemicals to get rid of the algae, and tried to turn it on. There was a leak in the chlorinator, so they couldn't get it running for any significant period of time so they left and charged me $300. They said they didn't have the required o-ring to fix it. I went out and got the o-ring, fixed the chlorinator and turned it on.
I've attached a crude schematic of how I understand the pool to be plumbed. EDIT: Pump Pic
One issue is that I don't know what the story is with the port labeled (2) in the schematic. I can't get it to do anything. I assume it can't be an intake port because there's only 2 pipes coming into the Dial-a-flo, one from (S), the skimmer, and one from (3). But it also doesn't output water into the pool, so I can't figure out what it is supposed to be doing. I ran a fish tape ~15ft into it thinking it was maybe clogged, but didn't feel anything. There is only 1 pipe coming out of the top of the filter and going underground.
Another problem is that the pump never fully fills with water and there's always small bubbles in the water being returned into the pool at (1). I've read that these are symptoms of an air leak in the suction side, but I can't find one. I've replaced the seal ring around the pump basket lid and the o-ring in the coupling between the Dial-a-flow and the pump. I've tried burning incense around all the connections I can access on the suction side and looking for smoke entering the system (like I've done for intake manifold leak detection on vehicles). EDIT: Pump Video
Right now the only way I can get water to reliably enter the pump is if I keep the Dial-a-flo in the middle, pulling from both (S) and (3). If I turn the handle to use either port alone, not nearly enough water is pulled into the pump. With the Dial-a-flo in the middle, the suction at (S) feels significantly weaker than that at (3), but I've no way to really measure that.
I took the top off the filter, removed the finger assembly, hosed it all off (lots of greenish clumpy DE was in there), and reinstalled. The pressure in the system at this point was ~15 psi. I then added 6 lbs of DE to the skimmer and the pressure went up to ~18 psi. After running for ~8 hours, the pressure was ~25 psi, so I did 5 bumps on the handle and it dropped to ~20 psi. Overnight it went up to ~25 psi again, so I did a flush by bumping 8 times, opening the drain, flushing out all the water and DE (which was now all yellowish) and repeating. I then turned it back on and added 5 lbs of DE. When I left the house this morning, the pressure was ~18 psi.
Any ideas about how I should proceed from here? It is nominally working I guess, but there are clearly problems and I'd like to get it working properly to start the season. I'd also like to learn as much as I can in the process so that I can manage the maintenance myself in the future with some confidence. It all seemed fairly straightforward, but I'm at a loss right now.
Thanks for any help!
I had a company come "open" the pool - basically they installed the ladder and railing, threw in some chemicals to get rid of the algae, and tried to turn it on. There was a leak in the chlorinator, so they couldn't get it running for any significant period of time so they left and charged me $300. They said they didn't have the required o-ring to fix it. I went out and got the o-ring, fixed the chlorinator and turned it on.
I've attached a crude schematic of how I understand the pool to be plumbed. EDIT: Pump Pic
One issue is that I don't know what the story is with the port labeled (2) in the schematic. I can't get it to do anything. I assume it can't be an intake port because there's only 2 pipes coming into the Dial-a-flo, one from (S), the skimmer, and one from (3). But it also doesn't output water into the pool, so I can't figure out what it is supposed to be doing. I ran a fish tape ~15ft into it thinking it was maybe clogged, but didn't feel anything. There is only 1 pipe coming out of the top of the filter and going underground.
Another problem is that the pump never fully fills with water and there's always small bubbles in the water being returned into the pool at (1). I've read that these are symptoms of an air leak in the suction side, but I can't find one. I've replaced the seal ring around the pump basket lid and the o-ring in the coupling between the Dial-a-flow and the pump. I've tried burning incense around all the connections I can access on the suction side and looking for smoke entering the system (like I've done for intake manifold leak detection on vehicles). EDIT: Pump Video
Right now the only way I can get water to reliably enter the pump is if I keep the Dial-a-flo in the middle, pulling from both (S) and (3). If I turn the handle to use either port alone, not nearly enough water is pulled into the pump. With the Dial-a-flo in the middle, the suction at (S) feels significantly weaker than that at (3), but I've no way to really measure that.
I took the top off the filter, removed the finger assembly, hosed it all off (lots of greenish clumpy DE was in there), and reinstalled. The pressure in the system at this point was ~15 psi. I then added 6 lbs of DE to the skimmer and the pressure went up to ~18 psi. After running for ~8 hours, the pressure was ~25 psi, so I did 5 bumps on the handle and it dropped to ~20 psi. Overnight it went up to ~25 psi again, so I did a flush by bumping 8 times, opening the drain, flushing out all the water and DE (which was now all yellowish) and repeating. I then turned it back on and added 5 lbs of DE. When I left the house this morning, the pressure was ~18 psi.
Any ideas about how I should proceed from here? It is nominally working I guess, but there are clearly problems and I'd like to get it working properly to start the season. I'd also like to learn as much as I can in the process so that I can manage the maintenance myself in the future with some confidence. It all seemed fairly straightforward, but I'm at a loss right now.
Thanks for any help!