Newbies opening our pool for the first time...help!

[themearas]

Okay so we are opening our pool for the first time and I think we already made a critical error. We have a saltwater pool with a Hayward pump and solar heating system. We've watched gads of videos that make it seem so simple but the pump isn't firing up. This is what we've done so far...

We blew the antifreeze out of the solar
we removed all the plugs from skimmers and pool
we closed all the lines except the shallow and deep end skimmers
we closed the solar lines
we put the filter on waste
we opened the bleed valve on the filter
we filled water into the pump until it was at the top
turned on the pump

At that point it just made a buzzing sound and then seemed to shut down. We tried repeating the last couple steps again and it did the same thing. Then the pump was very hot so we just turned everything off and have let it sit to cool down.

Any help appreciated!!!!

 

[woodyp]

Sounds to me like a blown capacitor if you can still freely rotate the impeller shaft. Try that first.

 

[themearas]

I can't turn the impellar. What would that mean? I called our pool guy ( wanted to avoid that!) and he said it might need a forced start.

 

[MN-CJ]

You said you can't turn the impeller and by the buzzing it sounds like it is "stuck" causing the overload on the motor to trip. You need to determine the cause of this. Unplug the motor. One cause would be something in the way of the impeller and another cause could be the bearing is seized up. So you don't damage the housing or impeller, start with disassembly to see if anything is interfering with the impeller (rock, acorn, ice, etc). Then I would try to grab the exposed portion of the shaft with a vice grip or pliers to see if it could be rotated in either direction. If it moves a little, keep working it back and forth being patient until it spins free.