HI There,
This is our second year opening our pool and once again we are having trouble priming the pump. We blow the water out of the pipes to winterize. Last year it took us a week before we finally got it primed - by which point the pool was swamp. We tried so many different things last year that by the time we finally got it we immediately switch gears to deal with the swamp instead of recording what finally worked. Look for some tips/suggestions to avoid the same this year. Once we finally got the pump primed last year we never had an issue again for the rest of the season. We spend about 5 hours working on it yesterday with no luck.
We think the issue is that we have a very big pool with 2 inch pipes. The skimmers are on the opposite site of the pool from the pool shed/pump. This means that the pipes run appox 50-60 feet from the deep end skimmer to the pump and another 10 feet from the shallow end skimmer. I think (but can't guarantee) what finally worked for us last year was to shut the skimmer valves, open the main drain valve and suck water up to the pump using a shop vac. Then we connect the pump back to the pipes, fill the pump and restart. We tried this many times yesterday with no luck. It is a very cumbersome process because we have to unhook the pump from the pipes each time to suck water up with the shop vac.
A couple of questions:
-should we fill the shop vac with water several times before reattaching the pump or is once enough?
-when we restart the pump should we open the main drain valve just a little or all the way? I've read before that sometimes you have to open the valve slowly.
-FYI we have the filter set to backwash. Last year we tried with the air release on the filter open and closed. Don't remember it making a difference.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks.
This is our second year opening our pool and once again we are having trouble priming the pump. We blow the water out of the pipes to winterize. Last year it took us a week before we finally got it primed - by which point the pool was swamp. We tried so many different things last year that by the time we finally got it we immediately switch gears to deal with the swamp instead of recording what finally worked. Look for some tips/suggestions to avoid the same this year. Once we finally got the pump primed last year we never had an issue again for the rest of the season. We spend about 5 hours working on it yesterday with no luck.
We think the issue is that we have a very big pool with 2 inch pipes. The skimmers are on the opposite site of the pool from the pool shed/pump. This means that the pipes run appox 50-60 feet from the deep end skimmer to the pump and another 10 feet from the shallow end skimmer. I think (but can't guarantee) what finally worked for us last year was to shut the skimmer valves, open the main drain valve and suck water up to the pump using a shop vac. Then we connect the pump back to the pipes, fill the pump and restart. We tried this many times yesterday with no luck. It is a very cumbersome process because we have to unhook the pump from the pipes each time to suck water up with the shop vac.
A couple of questions:
-should we fill the shop vac with water several times before reattaching the pump or is once enough?
-when we restart the pump should we open the main drain valve just a little or all the way? I've read before that sometimes you have to open the valve slowly.
-FYI we have the filter set to backwash. Last year we tried with the air release on the filter open and closed. Don't remember it making a difference.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks.