Pentair Intelliflo VS + SRVS “clean drain alarm”...

[Sakislayer]

Pool Newbie here.... I have a 22k gallon gunite pool with sheer decent and bubblers..... I have three pumps — a Pentair whisperflo for the main pool, a booster pump for when we use the robot cleaner, and a Pentair Intelliflo VS + Svrs that is used for the sheer decent and bubblers. Pool started up last Thursday and everything was working. Friday they came out for “pool school” and during that they turned off the sheer decent because it was windy. 36 hours later I go to turn it back on and it’s throwing the “clean your drain” alarm AND the basket in the pump is half water half air. I tried to prime the pump and restart it, but it seems the water just flows back into the pool. (My equipment is higher than the pool). I fill the pump basket with water and restart it and it sucks all the water out in like 1 second and shuts off again....

No clue on how to get the dang thing working....

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
Sadly, that SVRS pump will be a pain from now on. As this pool is new, do whatever you can with the pool builder to get it changed to an Intelliflo VSF. @Jimrahbe lives with one of those pumps. It is not pretty.
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

 

[Jimrahbe]

S,

Your pool builder must have used an old pump that he had left over in stock, because no one in their right mind would use the SVRS version of the IntelliFlo..

Especially for a waterfall pump. !!!

The main problem for me, is that any surge in the water makes the pump think that the suction side plumbing is blocked and it shuts itself off.. If I just close the filter air vent valve too fast, it will shut off.. If the waterfall comes on at the same time the water is a little low, the pump will shut off. I like to joke that if my next-door neighbor just passes a little gas, my SVRS pump will shut off.. In some cases it will restart.. In most cases it will try to restart about five times and then shut off for good.

Like an idiot, I let my pool builder talk me into this pump "as a safety feature".. A total of load of Bull Feathers.. Pools with dual drains don't need an SVRS pump no matter what they say.

Anyway, I have learned what not to do, so I don't have the problem you have where the pump will always be turning on and off..

What I do not understand is why you are using the VS pump on a water feather rather than as your main pool pump??

I would see what the pool builder can do to replace SVRS IntelliFlo with a non-SVRS IntelliFlo.

You have to manually clear the pump's controller before it will start back up.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Sakislayer]

Pool builder is coming back out in the next couple days to swap out the pump.... Not sure with what at this point. Since the pump will control Botha sheer decent and/or bubblers I assume I will need a variable speed pump correct?

 

[mknauss]

Correct