I came out to the pool last week and the noticed the pump wasn't running just sitting there humming. Did some research and replaced the capacitor and fired it up and it worked fine for a week.
Came out to the pool yesterday and found the pump fuse at the panel blown. Reset the breaker and turned on the pump and it made a pop sound and blew the breaker again. I thought I saw a very small puff of smoke come out of the back of the motor. Thought the capacitor blew but checked it and it still looked brand new.
At this point I figured that the pump was toast but I decided to try and fire it up again. This time it came on but sounded much louder than normal and it appears to be sucking some air along with moving some water. Pressure at the filter was at like 1 (normally is at 10). Pressure at the pool returns was also low. Basically, it looks like the pump isn't priming itself as normal. My pump is lower than the pool so I have never had any issues with the pool pump priming itself.
As a test, I dismounted the motor so I could see the impeller and it spins freely and appears intact. I even fired up the motor (just for a second) while it was disconnected and it seems to sound fine.
I tried using soap suds to try to find an intake leak but found nothing obvious. I tried running a stream of water where a possible air leak could be to see if that would prime the pump with no success as well.
The pool guy came out this weekend and thinks it's a bad pump and is going to warranty it but from what I see (I'm an amateur) the pump appears ok. Obviously, I'm going to let him do what he thinks is going to fix it but I wanted to see what the forum thinks.
Has anyone had a pump situation where it was going bad and causing priming issues?
Came out to the pool yesterday and found the pump fuse at the panel blown. Reset the breaker and turned on the pump and it made a pop sound and blew the breaker again. I thought I saw a very small puff of smoke come out of the back of the motor. Thought the capacitor blew but checked it and it still looked brand new.
At this point I figured that the pump was toast but I decided to try and fire it up again. This time it came on but sounded much louder than normal and it appears to be sucking some air along with moving some water. Pressure at the filter was at like 1 (normally is at 10). Pressure at the pool returns was also low. Basically, it looks like the pump isn't priming itself as normal. My pump is lower than the pool so I have never had any issues with the pool pump priming itself.
As a test, I dismounted the motor so I could see the impeller and it spins freely and appears intact. I even fired up the motor (just for a second) while it was disconnected and it seems to sound fine.
I tried using soap suds to try to find an intake leak but found nothing obvious. I tried running a stream of water where a possible air leak could be to see if that would prime the pump with no success as well.
The pool guy came out this weekend and thinks it's a bad pump and is going to warranty it but from what I see (I'm an amateur) the pump appears ok. Obviously, I'm going to let him do what he thinks is going to fix it but I wanted to see what the forum thinks.
Has anyone had a pump situation where it was going bad and causing priming issues?