Hi all, I'm new here, but heard you were the best folks to help me fix my problem.
I have a 10k gallon pool with a Rx Clear 3/4 HP Mighty Niagara pump which was new in January (replacing my 15 year old pentair that had a bad bearing and broke as I tried to get it apart). After the pump swap, the new pump has been working just fine up until recently.
My problem is currently twofold-
1. I the pump basket only gets about half full of water
2. I seem to be losing water overnight when the pump is running.
There are no obvious wet patches, so I assumed I have a broken pipe somewhere under the concrete.
The skimmer I have is one that has the main pool drain feed in from the bottom and the pump from the side. I have a brass diverter that helps pull more from the pool cleaner than the drain (if I don't do this, the pool cleaner doesn't get enough suction).
Things I've tried so far (with observations)
1. I bodged a pool cleaner pipe to the pump input and ran it into the pool over the concrete deck (bypassing the skimmer and existing plumbing) - This almost fills the pump basket, it's still quite turbulent with about 1/4" of thrashing water/air at the top. I cleaned the lid and o-ring and applied some pool lube to the o-ring, but no change. The pump/lid doesn't appear to have any damage.
2. I re-connected the existing piping and disconnected my pool cleaner piping, and I seem to now get the same kind of performance. There's still a lot of small bubbles coming back into the pool (but I imagine they could be getting introduced on the return side?!?)
This is how it runs with the existing underground piping
This is how it runs with the pool cleaner bodge <- note the soapy stuff was me trying to look for leaks with better bubbles - I was expecting to see the bubbles move, but there was nothing I could see.
Not really sure what to try next, I'm toying with the idea of getting some pipe and fittings to run a temporary over ground setup to eliminate the existing underground piping. Additionally, possibly bypassing the cartridge filter as another test.
I have a 10k gallon pool with a Rx Clear 3/4 HP Mighty Niagara pump which was new in January (replacing my 15 year old pentair that had a bad bearing and broke as I tried to get it apart). After the pump swap, the new pump has been working just fine up until recently.
My problem is currently twofold-
1. I the pump basket only gets about half full of water
2. I seem to be losing water overnight when the pump is running.
There are no obvious wet patches, so I assumed I have a broken pipe somewhere under the concrete.
The skimmer I have is one that has the main pool drain feed in from the bottom and the pump from the side. I have a brass diverter that helps pull more from the pool cleaner than the drain (if I don't do this, the pool cleaner doesn't get enough suction).
Things I've tried so far (with observations)
1. I bodged a pool cleaner pipe to the pump input and ran it into the pool over the concrete deck (bypassing the skimmer and existing plumbing) - This almost fills the pump basket, it's still quite turbulent with about 1/4" of thrashing water/air at the top. I cleaned the lid and o-ring and applied some pool lube to the o-ring, but no change. The pump/lid doesn't appear to have any damage.
2. I re-connected the existing piping and disconnected my pool cleaner piping, and I seem to now get the same kind of performance. There's still a lot of small bubbles coming back into the pool (but I imagine they could be getting introduced on the return side?!?)
This is how it runs with the existing underground piping
This is how it runs with the pool cleaner bodge <- note the soapy stuff was me trying to look for leaks with better bubbles - I was expecting to see the bubbles move, but there was nothing I could see.
Not really sure what to try next, I'm toying with the idea of getting some pipe and fittings to run a temporary over ground setup to eliminate the existing underground piping. Additionally, possibly bypassing the cartridge filter as another test.
