Last night when I went to turn the pump off, I discovered that we had lost an inch or two of water during the day and there was a big puddle of water near the backwash line. Earlier that day, my husband cleaned out the pump basket and mistakenly turned the pump back on when the Jandy lever that controls the skimmer and main drain was in the "off" position. (The multiport handle was on "filter" like it was supposed to be when he turned the pump back on.) When he went to check the pool after turning the pump back on, he saw that there was no water coming out of the returns so he immediately moved the lever back into the correct position. Everything appeared to be working normally after that. When you operate the pump with that lever in the off position, can this damage anything? This morning, we turned the pump back on, and we don't see any water trickling out the backwash line right now but we are going to keep an eye on it. Since it is Friday, I don't think I will be able to get a pool pro over here to look at this until Monday at the earliest. I just need to know if it is safe to continuing running the pump until I can get someone over here to look at this.
water trickling out the backwash line
- Thread starter gwtw
- Start date
As long as there is flow somewhere, the pump doesnt care. You might care if you backwash 2 ft out of the pool, but its safe. If you have flow now at the returns and no more water elsewhere then you should be fine
Lskul60
Well-known member
If you've got nice flow, and water is not trickling out the backwash line then you should be ok.
You may have damaged the multiport gasket, which you should keep an eye on.
It's a relatively replacement/simple fix and the new "spider" gasket should be around $10-$15.
You may have damaged the multiport gasket, which you should keep an eye on.
It's a relatively replacement/simple fix and the new "spider" gasket should be around $10-$15.
Thanks for the advice! The whole multiport assembly was replaced last year because it was leaking out the waste line. When it leaked last year, we lost a lot more water than we did this time. Would running the pump for a few minutes in the off position cause any other damage to the pool equipment, other than damaging the spider gasket? I noticed that bubbles came out of the returns when we turn the pump on this morning, but it went away in 30 seconds or so. Is this anything to worry about since we have good flow and see no bubbles in the pump or out the returns now? If it ends up leaking again, is there any harm in running the pump during the day so it won't turn green until we can get this fixed next week, as long as we make sure there is enough water in the pool at all times?
