Water flow. Pump, filter or heater?

[jaywdetroit]

Filter: Sta-rite System 3
Pump: IntelliPro VS+ SVRS
Heater: Mastertemp 250
Chlorinator: IntelliChlor - IC40


My heater stopped firing on a few days back with a system error. After some troubleshooting I noticed it was due to the fact that it didn't think there was enough water flow through it. I also noticed my water pressure was down on the filter - to about 5 PSI. I increased the pump speed and the heater kicked on.

So my question is where to begin troubleshooting this.
My pool tech in a quick conversation said I should clean the water filter. However, I thought the PSI goes UP when the filter is dirty, not down.

So my question is... How do I troubleshoot this problem.

Could some gauge in the heater be going bad? Is the pump starting to die? Do I trust the RPM reading on the pump? If the pump was dying, would that be reflected on the RPM meter?

I usually run my pump at 1500 RPM and that is plenty to fire on the heater. The Chlorine generator continues to have enough flow at 1500 rpm to generate chlorine. I have had to increase the speed to 1900 RPM to get the heater to fire on, and of course that is costing me about twice as much electricity. I'd like to solve this problem.

Suggestions? Thanks ahead of time if I don't get right back to you.

 

[stuckpipe]

I had a similar problem with my heater not turning on due to a low pressure alert. After changing out a circuit board or two in the unit it was finally determined that an solenoid for a value was diverting water/pressure away from the unit. I don't remember which valve or solenoid had the problem but it was fixed and reset and everything is working now. So I would check the valves and their position and automation. I got stuck with the Band-Aid parts and charges so now I have photos of where everything should be when operating at optimum efficiency for spa, pool and spa+pool.

 

[pooldv]

As the filter clogs the flow drops. My SWG is happy at 900 until the filter gets a bit dirty and then I get flow errors. At 1000 rpm I get much less flow errors but eventually I start getting flow errors as the filter gets dirtier. At 1100 rpm I get no flow errors no matter how dirty the filter gets. So, ypu can either clean the filter to get sufficient flow or you can run at a higher rpm to get sufficient flow.