Pool pumps are the heart and soul of your pool equipment area. Without a fully functioning pool pump, water is not moving efficiently through the filtration equipment, or worse yet, its not moving at all. After the winter when lines have been blown out and vacated of all water in the plumbing, it can need a little extra help to get that pump to pull a full prime and run to the best of its ability. Always make sure to check the following small items first before actually beginning the pump priming process:
· Check the Pot Lid O-ring – Always start here and make sure that the O-ring that seals under the lid of the pump is in good shape with no cracks and double check to make sure it is not stretched out or warn out in any way. Without a pump lid O-ring in good shape, the pump will pull air, rather than working harder to pull the water through the system. We do recommend lubricating the pot lid ring with Super Lube to ensure you get a good air tight seal.
· Next, check your pump plugs. Typically, there are only two and can be found either on the front or the right-hand side of the wet end housing. Pull the plugs by twisting counter clockwise and unscrewing them. Make sure that the O-ring is on the pump plug and that it also has no damage or cracks in it. Or you will have the same issue of pumps pulling air rather than a prime. If the O-ring is damaged or missing, do not run the pump until you have replaced it. Make sure to lubricate these O-rings with Super Lube.
· Make sure the pump basket is empty of all debris and doesn’t have any cracks in it or breaks that would allow for debris to have gotten through into the impeller chamber of the motor clogging the impeller. If the impeller gets infiltrated with debris, then it will not “throw” water as it should and the pump will not prime as it cannot discharge water efficiently.
· Make sure all suction and return points in the pool are open. All returns should not be plugged and the skimmer and bottom drain should be free of debris. If you have valves leading into the pump, make sure they are in the open position.
Follow these steps once you have checked the above items off the list to prime the pump:
1. Remove the pump lid and clean out the basket.
2. Replace the pump basket and lubricate the O-ring under the lid if needed.
3. Using a bucket, dump water into the pump basket area quickly until it reaches the top and begins to flood over the sides. (You can Fill the pump with the garden hose as well, but a bucket is more efficient to fill the pump faster.)
4. Quickly replace the cap to trap as much water in that area of the pump as possible.
5. Turn the pump power back on and watch through the glass of the lid as water begins to be pulled into the basket area. If you have a variable speed pump, make sure the rpms are at a high enough level to pull a prime, low speeds will not pull a prime. The prime will usually take a few moments to begin, just be patient with it as you listen to it gurgle and sputter a little. Once water fills the basket, the pump lid will work most of the air out of it. If there is still a large pocket of air in it, then there is an air leak somewhere between the pump lid and the plumbing running into the front of the pump.
6. For cartridge and earth systems, you will need to open the air bleeder on top and bleed the air from the filter after the pump is running with water in it.
7. Repeat steps 3-5 if the prime does not take. If you still cannot get it to go, we recommend calling to set up a service call to diagnose the problem.
