Superflo pump losing prime on low speed

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s.hashemirud

Well-known member
May 25, 2023
172
Seattle
Pool Size
14000
hello all,
The pump has been installed in November and was working fine till Feb.
now, it is okay when restart it but loses prime over time. We did backwash, but after some days still loses prime. We have replaced our deck drains recently then there might be some soil/ dust in the water; I mean the water is not perfect, but other than that we didn’t change anything that would affect the pool. After a day, you can see air on top of the pump. No water leak by the way!
Can anyone guess what the problem is?
I also was wondering if you want to run your pump for 12 hours, how would you program it?
Thanks!
 
VSPs do that at low speeds. There are multiple threads spanning 15 years on this topic. Our hypothesis is that at low speed, the suction is lower and allows some air over time to get in through the pump lid.

Most of us just run a short cycle (on the Superflo, it would be 15 mins) at high speed once a day to clear the air.

To run the superflo for 12 hours, use speed 1 set for 12 hours at whatever speed you want. Speed 2 and Speed 3 to 0 hrs. After the 12 hours, the pump will stop and start again 12 hours later.
 
Thank you so much for the advice!
We decided to run it with 2200 for 6 hours and 1500 for the rest of the day, but it loses prime on low speed after some days. After a week, the flow for 1500 is almost zero. I meant I barely would notice any flow
 
PoolStored said:
VSPs do that at low speeds. There are multiple threads spanning 15 years on this topic. Our hypothesis is that at low speed, the suction is lower and allows some air over time to get in through the pump lid.

Most of us just run a short cycle (on the Superflo, it would be 15 mins) at high speed once a day to clear the air.

To run the superflo for 12 hours, use speed 1 set for 12 hours at whatever speed you want. Speed 2 and Speed 3 to 0 hrs. After the 12 hours, the pump will stop and start again 12 hours later.
Click to expand...
To add to what I said, the pump works and you can hear it all the time but after some days the flow gets to zero in low speed
 
s.hashemirud said:
Do you mean higher than 2200?
Click to expand...
Yes. 3000 for 15 minutes (smallest segment you can get on the superflo).

Superflo has three programmable run times. Program one for your 2200 for 6 hours, one for 1500 for 6 hours, and one for 15 minutes at 3000.

Does the air bubble go away when you run at 2200 for 6 hours? If so, then you are good to go. If not, add a 15 minute segment at 3000.
 
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PoolStored said:
Yes. 3000 for 15 minutes (smallest segment you can get on the superflo).

Superflo has three programmable run times. Program one for your 2200 for 6 hours, one for 1500 for 6 hours, and one for 15 minutes at 3000.

Does the air bubble go away when you run at 2200 for 6 hours? If so, then you are good to go. If not, add a 15 minute segment at 3000.
Click to expand...
I forgot to tell you that in the past when I tried to program it for less than 24 hours, it would work and turn off but would not turn on the next day. I needed to turn it on by myself. How can I fix it?
🙏🏿
 
s.hashemirud said:
I forgot to tell you that in the past when I tried to program it for less than 24 hours, it would work and turn off but would not turn on the next day. I needed to turn it on by myself. How can I fix it?
🙏🏿
Click to expand...
How old is the pump, and who installed it. That is not expected behavior, per the manual.
 
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Hello all,
Since the pump was losing prime, I asked the pool company who installed to come and check. They did check and said you have air leak. The air bubbles are only in the pump not return jets! I believe we are not losing water due to any leak because the amount of water that we are losing due to heating and swiming is not significant. And since September to today, we only added water once! We live in Seattle then we have a lot of rain in fall and winter and we drained a lot of water from the pool. They insisted that we have leak although there is not water loss. It can be a small leak that does not cause any water loss. But, I was looking for other issues. They told me to put the filter on recirculate to remove filtering from the system just for checking! Since then, the air bubbles on top of the pump on 2200 rpm is as big as a small lentil, but still on 1400rpm , there is a big amount of air on top of the pump( we had this amount of air before when it was running with 2200 rpm) . I can say the amount of the air on 1400 rpm is one forth of what we had before but still it is big and gets bigger over time. I have added 2 pictures that I have taken 1:15 minutes apart. The first one was working with 1400 rpm for 1:15 min and the second one is after 3:30 minutes with the same rpm.
Do you think the problem is the filter?
 

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No it is not the filter. Running VSPs on low speed, you will get this behavior. We don't know why, but suspect that low rpm creates less of a vacuum on the pump lid 0-ring, which allows a small amount of air in over time. I chased tail on this three years ago. I was provided the same information with a bunch of VSP users that report the same behavior.

The solution is to program a 15 minute, high speed (3000rpm) cycle daily. It will clear the bubble. It will come back, then clear again the next day. I would re-read this entire thread.

Your pump has the capability to run a 15 minute cycle every day at 3000rpm.

 
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Before recirculating, we had air leak on 2200 rpm too. But now there is air on top of the pump as big as a small lentil, but the problem is on lower speeds. I do not think before was normal, but I was hoping the new situation is normal and by replacing the filter, we solve the issue somehow! Is this small amount of air leak for 2200 rpm is okay( air on top of the pump as big as a small lentil) ?
 
mknauss said:
Your thread title says ‘ losing prime’. Are you? The pump completely runs dry and water coming from the skimmer stops?
Click to expand...
No, we ran the pump for 24 hours during colder months like April, the program was 21 hour on 1400 and 3 hours on 2500, it was losing prime after some days of working. You could see there was no flow in return jets, but the pump never was dry. It was a big amount of air on top of the water. We changed the program later to 12 hours 15 min on 3000, 7 hours on 2200, and about 5 on 1400. Always the flow was okay, but air on top of the pump was growing as the rpm went down.
 
If you get enough air to stop flow, then you have a suction side leak somewhere.
Check that the installer applied Pool Lube - Further Reading to the pump basket cover gasket, the drain plug orings, and any valve orings on the suction side.
 
mknauss said:
If you get enough air to stop flow, then you have a suction side leak somewhere.
Check that the installer applied Pool Lube - Further Reading to the pump basket cover gasket, the drain plug orings, and any valve orings on the suction side.
Click to expand...
The company came over and checked and sealed some pipes. We do not have any valve except the backwash valve. The recirculating on filter made a big difference. I don’t know if the backwash valve on backwash pipe has any effect Because it has air leaks, but the filter was on filtering not backwash. Also, filter does not show any pressure on 1400 rpm and on 2200 , the pressure is 5, but normally should be 15
 

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