Pump loses prime after new suction line installed

[reedalb]

Hoping you all can help with a mystery. I had my local pool construction company replace my skimmer and suction line. The old one was letting in air. The old line was buried underground and came up and connected to my pump. The new suction line runs above ground, goes up and come down into the pump. Other than that, nothing has changed. It seems to work for a while and then loses prime and I can’t get it to prime back up unless I turn off and close my pipes leading up to the solar heater on my roof.
This never happened with the old pipe, even though it let in air.
My pump is pretty old, as you can see from the pictures.
My only guess is that the problem is being caused by the fact that the suction side pipe goes up above the level of the pump basket and that being above that level makes it prone to an air pocket, and the pump can’t recover by sucking enough water up and over that stretch of pipe. I’m not an expert, though. I inherited this pool when I bought the house less than a year ago and am learning as I go.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[reedalb]

These are photos of the skimmer being installed. The pipe comes up a bit, runs undergoing for about four feet, then comes up above ground level. Then it runs around the corner of the house, makes a right turn and heads straight for the shed with the pool equipment. Then it goes up, into the shed and comes back down to the pump.

 

[proavia]

Maybe call the company you paid to do the work and have them fix it for free as it certainly isn't working correctly.

But first check that the water level is half way up the skimmer throat and that the weir door isn't sticking partially or fully closed.

 

[reedalb]

Thanks. Unfortunately, this company has already had to fix this install once. The first time, the pipe went way above the skimmer and they thought the problem was that. I’m losing confidence in their ability to figure this out. This is a major company, though. There are only really two pool construction companies in my county.

 

[proavia]

Sounds lkke they need to try again. Hopefully third time is a charm.

 

[Poolbreh]

It running above skimmer wouldn’t cause the issue you describe. When it shuts off does the pump slowly allow air in and it drains back to the pool? I would imagine it’s probably the pump lid or somewhere on the pump preventing a complete seal. Reason(you have a check valve right after).

 

[Dirk]

You can easily look for above ground suction-side leaks yourself, like this:

 

[1poolman1]

While you shouldn't have the inlet plumbing higher than the pump inlet, I've seen far worse installations that work reasonably well. This may sound silly, but I don't see any glue on the fittings at the pump. Did they use clear (not what a company would normally do)? Did they dry fit the plumbing and forget to glue it? That has happened to many, many people, including me. It will work for a while on the suction side but will show up. Do it on the return side and shows up quickly (though about 15 years ago I had one last about 3 weeks before it started to leak, and that was just a small drip). When you are working with that many fittings it is easy to get tired and overlook one. If there was a crew they might have thought "the other guy took care of it." You said there was a repair done after the first install. It looks like a pressure test was done once but how about later?