Pump or filter issues since I’ve moved into our house

[timslatt]

Had this pool for almost two years now and it NEVER seems to constantly work. I posted every picture I could think of to take. The main issue is I never seem to get consistently smooth pumping of water. At some point the filter will fill with air and the only thing that seems to “reset things” is to turn it off, bleed the air, and empty the strainer (even though there’s rarely a lot of debris). And then, depending on the configuration of the levers, its a matter of days or hours (sometimes minutes) before I have to repeat the process. Often times if I have the strainer open and bleed the air, the strainer overflows, which to me says there’s a blockage somewhere but again, it’s never consistent.
How the levers are set tends to contribute to how often this happens:
*skimmer on full, floor/vac off - this is when I have the fewest issues. Sometimes I can go a week or two without issues but the second I turn the vac or floor on, the pump begins to get loud and lose prime.
*skimmer on half, floor vac, or floor/vac - lucky if I get 15 minutes without a problem.

there doesn’t seem to be any difference to whether or not the solar bypass lever is on or off. I used to think having the bypass on resulted in fewer issues but recently that doesn’t seem to be the case.

usually when I have to “reboot” everything I get large bubbles from the inlets, but that goes away after a few minutes.

WEATHER - here in Las Vegas we get periods I’d pretty strong winds, and when the wind is blowing strong (20mph+) I basically can’t even use the pump, all the stuff above happens in a matter of minutes regardless of the configuration. normally id think the wind is blowing debris into the skimmer But the skimmer is rarely full.

WHATS BEEN DONE SO FAR:
*recently replaced the filter cartridges and the o-ring
*replaced o-ring and cover for strainer

sorry for rambling but I’m at my wits end with this stupid thing and I wanted to give as much info as I possibly could.
Help!

 

[Jimrahbe]

Tim,

Not sure why it is intermittent, but it sounds like an air leak to me.

Some questions for you...

Coming out of your filter the first valve sends all the water to an unmarked pipe.. Where does this water go???

Did you lube the O-Ring under the pump lid when it was replaced

Does water stay in your pump basket and filter when the pump is off, or does it drain back into your pool?

Do you have a weir door on your skimmer, and does it float up and down with the water level?

Did you just replace the motor?? If so, was it the same HP as what was there before?

When you turn off the pump does water leak out anywhere?



The fact that the pump basket overflows, when the lid is off and you open the air vent, is all normal..

It looks like you have a leak at the pressure side connection to the pump..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[timslatt]

Responses next to your questions - thanks!

Tim,

Not sure why it is intermittent, but it sounds like an air leak to me.

Some questions for you...

Coming out of your filter the first valve sends all the water to an unmarked pipe.. Where does this water go??? - the bottom pipe leads to the solar bypass

Did you lube the O-Ring under the pump lid when it was replaced - yes, I lubed every ring, including the filter joint and the pressure valve (forgot to mention I replaced that as well)

Does water stay in your pump basket and filter when the pump is off, or does it drain back into your pool? - intermittent - sometimes it'll drain back, sometimes it sits

Do you have a weir door on your skimmer, and does it float up and down with the water level? - yes, I have one, it's on a stationary hinge and seems to move with the water

Did you just replace the motor?? If so, was it the same HP as what was there before? - yes, it is the same HP (forgot to mention that as well) - the issues have happened both before and after the pump was replaced

When you turn off the pump does water leak out anywhere? - occasionally (not often) I get an "eruption" through the skimmer, but other than that no leaks that i know of.



The fact that the pump basket overflows, when the lid is off and you open the air vent, is all normal..

It looks like you have a leak at the pressure side connection to the pump.. - where do you see that?

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Tim,

"It looks like you have a leak at the pressure side connection to the pump.. - where do you see that?"

Right where the white stuff comes out of the pump output pipe and flows down the side of the pump.. This would not cause air to get into your system, but could cause the pump to drain down when off.

The eruption of air out of the skimmer is almost always because of compressed air in the filter, pushing water back out the pump and into the skimmer when the pump is off..

If this were my pool I would try to narrow down the problem by doing the following:

Run with just all skimmer and nothing else.. And sending all the return water to the pool returns and no where else.. I'd run for a week and check the skimmer basket every day before the pump came on to see if the water drained or not..

Then I would try using just the Main Drain ....

Then just the vac port...

I understand you somewhat have done this before, but sometimes it makes sense to do things over in a controlled manner.

Let's see if we can get some of our other members to chime in on this one.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[timslatt]

I will try that and report back. Thanks for the input!

 

[Jimrahbe]

Tim,

I guess my thought is to find and fix the reason that the pump drains back into the pool first, and then move on to the next problem.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[timslatt]

Just so I know...what's supposed to happen when the strainer lid is taken off? Both with the air filter valve closed and open?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Tim,

Unless there is a valve, or check valve, between the pump and the filter, if you open the pump lid, water will overflow the pump basket. It just does it a lot faster when the filter air vent is open.

I use hair nets in my skimmers, so I don't get much stuff in my pump basket.. So I normally only open my pump basket when I am going to clean the filter anyway, so I don't care.

Thanks,

Jim R.