Pump overheated - power hum - can manually start it spinning - still no priming?

[dstedman]

Strange problem - I've got a 1 HP Pentair Superflo that apparently stopped working this morning. My wife called me while I was out golfing and said the GFI had tripped for the pump, and when she went to reset it and start the pump, there was only a humming. When I got home I checked it out - the water in the pump was very warm, which told me it probably overheated. I was able to remove the sight glass top and reach a screw driver in there to check that the impeller moves freely - it does. I was then able to turn on the pump (humming begins), and reach a screwdriver in the impeller - turn it - and get it to turn the motor and get it running! Thought for sure this would mean a bad starting capacitor and that I could just run it 24/7 in the mean time.

However, the pump won't prime? No sign of any bubbles being pushed out of jets, tried adding water with a hose to see if it would pump it and it didn't seem to do much (though the water seemed to move through it). Almost like the impeller is broken free of the motor, but not sure why why I'd be able to manually start it by spinning it then?

Your thoughts would be appreciated - we haven't had a prime pool weekend in May in MN in years - huge bummer to have a broken pump!

Thanks!
Dan

 

[dstedman]

A couple of additional notes. I ran the pump for a few minutes (after manually getting the impeller to engage) with the plastic sight glass top in place and it started pulling a trickle of water through but never seemed to want to pull more than that - usually it would prime within 30 seconds or so. The rubber gasket is in perfect shape and the pump has been running without any air bubbles in the sight glass top for weeks, so I don't think there is any air leaking in from there.

Also my wife found the skimmers to be totally full when she cleaned them this morning. We also have a floor drain in the deep end, so the pump should have been fine - maybe working a bit harder pulling water in - but no real problem I wouldn't think.

Still stumped... :-/

 

[cfherrman]

Probably won't prime because you have to open it up and let air get in it to get it spinning.

 

[dstedman]

It ended up being a two part fix. I picked up a new starter capacitor and installed it - fixed the hum! Then I got a new O ring for screw top clear access thingy to the pump - the old one couldn't stand up to priming pressures along with the high heat of the past couple of days. Capacitors are really easy to change and it was only a $13 part, so I'm pretty happy about the result - works great now!!!

Dan