- Oct 25, 2015
- 5,145
- Pool Size
- 25000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
Now that I'm temporarily left-handed for a few months things seem to be going wrong. First my wifi antenna/transceiver now the discharge fitting on my pump. I noticed a very tiny drip a couple weeks ago. Wife and I did the "my left your right" routine with my gigantic Channel Locks and tightened just a little. No good so removed the union and inspected surfaces. I thought maybe a little dirt or possibly a warped flange piece... reassembled and still leaks only a little worse now. So what gives? We took some very close photos with the phone and it appeared the water was coming from the male part of the fitting. Either leaking through the flange seal or a physical crack in the fitting. Close examination of the fitting revealed the first photo below. You can see what looks like a crack but not really certain. So blow it up a little and look again. Crack confirmed! Using phone capability and easy editing tools can be very helpful to get an eye on the damaged part without taking it apart. Magnification can easily reveal damage that would otherwise be very hard to confirm.
So actual pump body was cracked in the part that makes the male fitting that is molded and threaded as part of the pump body. Replace isn't cheap ($150) but there's really no fix for this that's long term that I want to mess with. Pump is less than 10 years old VS motor is only on 2nd year so I'll bite the bullet and fix it. So this is another failure mechanism for pump discharge fittings that I thought might help somebody. If you think you have an o-ring leak in this fitting then clean and reassemble plus the flange looks square and not warped look closely. You could have the same problem I have. No amount of over-tightening is going to solve this. In fact it makes the crack worse.
I think there are many more applications of phone camera to diagnose pool problems. This is an area for me where this old dog needs to keep learning new tricks.
I hope this is helpful.
Chris
So actual pump body was cracked in the part that makes the male fitting that is molded and threaded as part of the pump body. Replace isn't cheap ($150) but there's really no fix for this that's long term that I want to mess with. Pump is less than 10 years old VS motor is only on 2nd year so I'll bite the bullet and fix it. So this is another failure mechanism for pump discharge fittings that I thought might help somebody. If you think you have an o-ring leak in this fitting then clean and reassemble plus the flange looks square and not warped look closely. You could have the same problem I have. No amount of over-tightening is going to solve this. In fact it makes the crack worse.
I think there are many more applications of phone camera to diagnose pool problems. This is an area for me where this old dog needs to keep learning new tricks.
I hope this is helpful.
Chris
