Everything has been running just fine. Frankly, we've been afraid to touch the system for fear of messing something up. And we did. We opened the pump filter basket lid to clean it out, and it was basically empty though it hadn't been emptied since before September. Wasn't necessary. But now... the pump won't prime and there is air in the system.
Let me say that I've watched my former pool guy open that lid and empty the basket a half dozen times. He didn't even ever fill it back up with water before closing it and running it, and it always worked just fine for him and continued to after he left. Last year we attempted to open and empty the basket ourselves, and then the system wouldn't prime and run properly. He came, opened it, closed it, turned it on, all worked just fine. He thought maybe our water was low and removed that stopper in the skimmer basket because it was opening and closing preventing water to go through it at all times. All has been running just fine since.
This Saturday, we decided to open the filter basket and clean it out since it's been a while. Open lid, empty basket, reinsert basket, fill with water (as we saw on youtube and it even says so on the basket lid), put lid back on tight, turned on the pump and it primed and ran just fine.
Sunday morning, woke up at 6am when the pump turned on because it was running loud. Went out to see water churning in the filter basket and no water going up through the tube into the filter itself. You could see it trying, but it just couldn't do it. Turned it all off and went back to bed. Researched and thought that we must not have put the lid on tight enough/properly, etc. Went out later, opened the lid (which wasn't as tight as the day before) saw no issues with the o-rings or anything else we could see, filled it with water, closed it and it ran just fine. Primed itself and ran for a few hours.
Sunday evening, I checked it after it shut off and the tube (which is clear) was still full with water, as it usually is. It was a closed system, holding the water tight just fine.
This morning I went out to peek at it before it turned on and the pipe was filled with water, as was the filter area. It all looked good.
At 7am when the filter kicked on, it ran super loud. Ran out to see that it wasn't priming and water was churning in the filter basket, the pipe showed water trying to rise up to the filter but couldn't make it, and air bubbles were coming out of the pool returns.
We are stumped. This should be a super easy maintenance item. We're afraid that if we can't even do this, how in the world are we supposed to maintain the actual DE filter.
Any clues??? As I said, all was perfectly fine before we opened the lid, and it seems OK if we fill with water and run, but it's not turning on and priming and running by itself now. Nothing else was touched.
Thanks.
Tracy
Let me say that I've watched my former pool guy open that lid and empty the basket a half dozen times. He didn't even ever fill it back up with water before closing it and running it, and it always worked just fine for him and continued to after he left. Last year we attempted to open and empty the basket ourselves, and then the system wouldn't prime and run properly. He came, opened it, closed it, turned it on, all worked just fine. He thought maybe our water was low and removed that stopper in the skimmer basket because it was opening and closing preventing water to go through it at all times. All has been running just fine since.
This Saturday, we decided to open the filter basket and clean it out since it's been a while. Open lid, empty basket, reinsert basket, fill with water (as we saw on youtube and it even says so on the basket lid), put lid back on tight, turned on the pump and it primed and ran just fine.
Sunday morning, woke up at 6am when the pump turned on because it was running loud. Went out to see water churning in the filter basket and no water going up through the tube into the filter itself. You could see it trying, but it just couldn't do it. Turned it all off and went back to bed. Researched and thought that we must not have put the lid on tight enough/properly, etc. Went out later, opened the lid (which wasn't as tight as the day before) saw no issues with the o-rings or anything else we could see, filled it with water, closed it and it ran just fine. Primed itself and ran for a few hours.
Sunday evening, I checked it after it shut off and the tube (which is clear) was still full with water, as it usually is. It was a closed system, holding the water tight just fine.
This morning I went out to peek at it before it turned on and the pipe was filled with water, as was the filter area. It all looked good.
At 7am when the filter kicked on, it ran super loud. Ran out to see that it wasn't priming and water was churning in the filter basket, the pipe showed water trying to rise up to the filter but couldn't make it, and air bubbles were coming out of the pool returns.
We are stumped. This should be a super easy maintenance item. We're afraid that if we can't even do this, how in the world are we supposed to maintain the actual DE filter.
Any clues??? As I said, all was perfectly fine before we opened the lid, and it seems OK if we fill with water and run, but it's not turning on and priming and running by itself now. Nothing else was touched.
Thanks.
Tracy
