Pentair Boost-Rite Cycles On and Off

[Hwyman]

HI!

I normally run my pressure-side cleaner at night but decided to give it an early start this evening after a pretty good storm dump a bunch of tree debris in the pool. The cleaner started fine but after a few minutes I noticed that it had stopped moving. It started up again after about a minute and then stopped after a minute. I noticed that the hose had gone slack so I looked at the pump, Pentair Boost-Rite, and saw that it was not running. About a minute later, it kicked on again. It continues to cycle on and off. There's no humming or other unusual noise coming from the pump. In fact, you can barely hear it over the Pentair Superflo pool pump which is normal. The motor also didn't feel hot although I'm not sure I was feeling in the right place. The pump is connected to an intermatic timer.

There is a capacitor kit available, so that might be an option although I'm guessing it is a starter cap vs a run cap.

Any ideas of what might be going on or how to diagnose?

 

[ajw22]

Put a voltmeter on the power leads into the pump and see if power is on when pump stops.

 

[Hwyman]

As suggested, I put a meter on it while it was running and when it stopped. It still had power. I did notice a 2 volt drop between running (117.5) and not running (119.5). The spec is 115 VAC ± 10%, so I guess that is probably fine. Since I had it opened, I was going to test the cap but discovered one of the leads was crimped to the pump and I didn't have a replacement connector. (I probably could have used a Wago connector.)

I also tried to cycle the power at the timer but that made no difference. Any other ideas?

 

[ajw22]

Only thing that is easily replaceable is the capacitor.

How old is the pump?

 

[JamesW]

Are you sure that the pump is configured to run on 115 volts?

Can you check the amperage with the pump on and compare it to the motor label amperage?

If those check out, try a new capacitor.

 

[Hwyman]

Only thing that is easily replaceable is the capacitor.

How old is the pump?

It's 5 years old and been running without a problem until now.

 

[Hwyman]

I finally got around to getting the capacitor kit for this pump and it made no difference. It still starts just fine but shuts down after a few minutes and then starts up again after a minute and continues to repeat. We did have one unusually cool day (mid-60s) where it ran without stopping for the 30 minutes I had it on. Maybe it's a temperature thing which is obviously not good. As it is, I don't see anything that is user-replaceable to try. Seems like it might be time for a new pump.