Possible pump issues - over heating question

[axwoman]

Hello. New to posting, but I have used your site for years for keeping my pool clear. Thank you!

Just opened up our pool this week, everything was going great, nice and clear water wise, until we went to vacuum last night and the skimmer basket was so full of maple tree debris (we were gone to work all day and it was unattended, won't do that again) that we couldn't get the basket out for the suction from the pump. So we turned off the pump, cleaned out skimmer basket, kicked motor back on and nothing. Figured it was hot so we let it cool off for a bit, tried again and just a slight hum. Then we waited several hours and it fired back up and it seemed to run fine, no new noises or anything out of the ordinary. Ran it for probably 2 more hours then shut it off for the night, leaving it off until get home today.

I assume the pump motors have a thermal overload to keep them from overheating, and I assume that the pump was keeping itself off until it cooled down. (I'm not a pump motor expert)

So my question is should I replace the pump/motor now or just keep an eye on it?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[CJadamec]

Motors do have thermal protection cut out switches.

It sounds like yours was overheating.

If it runs now that its cool that's good. You have probably taken some years off the life of the motor and possibly the wet end of the pump from insufficient water flow. Look for any signs of heat damage to the motor or the pump housing and strainer basket. If it all looks good just run it and listen for any weird noise. You may get lucky and it will just keep running for a while like nothing happened.

 

[axwoman]

Thank you for the quick reply! Hoping it hangs in there for awhile.