Hello. I was hoping I might probe your thoughts on some odd behavior with my pool. My pool was built in the late 70s and is about 50,000 gallons. Attached to it is a in ground spa that you can probably seat about 10 people comfortably. All the pumps, filters, and heater have been replaced in the last year. I also have two pumps, a primary and a booster, as well as a bubbler. The booster and bubbler have no issues. The only thing original to the pool are the pipes.
So onto the issue, in pool mode my primary pump behaves relatively normal and primes fairly quickly. In looking at the check valve there are a few bubbles but there are very few. But something strange happens when I switch to spa mode. As the actuators are turning the water level on the pump drops and it takes a couple of minutes for it to re-prime for spa mode. Sometimes it doesn't prime at all and we have to help it by either adding water to the pump or bleeding the check valve on the filter. And while running in spa mode the water level is never all the way to the top of the pump and there are always bubbles in the check valve. My pool guy says it's fine to run it this way and believes that there are either one or two things likely going on. He feels that we lose prime when switching to the spa mode due to a possible crack in the pipe underground. However, I never lose water unless it's due to normal evaporation. He agrees this is odd if there is a crack. I might lose half an inch of water in the pool in a week when hot and sunny. My pool guy also thinks this theoretical crack in the pipe is where the bubbles come from. Surprisingly though he doesn't think the priming issue is related. He thinks I have narrower pipes due to the era in which my pool was built and that this creates poor flow to the pumps and makes it difficult to prime. Do you have any thoughts on the likely culprit? Do you agree with his assessment?
There are no visible water leaks from any of the pipes next to the pump equipment. I can put some silicone at various locations and try and seal things up a little bit but except for the pipe that goes to the spa all the equipment and piping is the same for pool versus spa mode. Any thoughts and questions are welcome and appreciated.
So onto the issue, in pool mode my primary pump behaves relatively normal and primes fairly quickly. In looking at the check valve there are a few bubbles but there are very few. But something strange happens when I switch to spa mode. As the actuators are turning the water level on the pump drops and it takes a couple of minutes for it to re-prime for spa mode. Sometimes it doesn't prime at all and we have to help it by either adding water to the pump or bleeding the check valve on the filter. And while running in spa mode the water level is never all the way to the top of the pump and there are always bubbles in the check valve. My pool guy says it's fine to run it this way and believes that there are either one or two things likely going on. He feels that we lose prime when switching to the spa mode due to a possible crack in the pipe underground. However, I never lose water unless it's due to normal evaporation. He agrees this is odd if there is a crack. I might lose half an inch of water in the pool in a week when hot and sunny. My pool guy also thinks this theoretical crack in the pipe is where the bubbles come from. Surprisingly though he doesn't think the priming issue is related. He thinks I have narrower pipes due to the era in which my pool was built and that this creates poor flow to the pumps and makes it difficult to prime. Do you have any thoughts on the likely culprit? Do you agree with his assessment?
There are no visible water leaks from any of the pipes next to the pump equipment. I can put some silicone at various locations and try and seal things up a little bit but except for the pipe that goes to the spa all the equipment and piping is the same for pool versus spa mode. Any thoughts and questions are welcome and appreciated.
