constant air bubels in basket at pump

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jan r
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Joined: Sun 10 Jun, 2007 09:59

constant air bubels in basket at pump

Postby jan r » Sun 10 Jun, 2007 11:03

Hi.. First time post. My question is, well question and description of problem on 2 year old inground pool about 12,500 gallon 14 by 28, 3 to 6 foot. Have A pinnacle pump with 1.5 hp motor and a pentair 150 sguare foot cartridge filter, It has 3 intake valves, skimmer valve main drain valve and pool cleaner valve and 2 return valves 1 for the 3 side returns and 1 operates the 3 floor returns. installed for better heat distrabution, and also have solar heat on roof of house with a 10 panel system. heat has worked very well in the past when the pump had a 1 hp motor but since the builder swapped pump motor to a 1.5 hp pump solar is not as efficient from water being pumped faster than before and head pressure has increased about 8 to 10 psi.and sets at about 18 psi with solar turned on and used to be at 8 to 10 psi with the 1 hp motor. now the problem is the pump has lost its prime on several occasions and cannot figure out the cause, pool level is well above min level for skimmer so no sucking of air into the system. but when pump looses prime of course usually when no one is home to monitor the pool it heats up and the pump inlet and outlet lines loosen up in the pump housing and causes severe air leak into system. my pool builder has been out no less than 6 times in the past 2 months to fix the problem and therefore the change of the pump motor. now the problem is after every repair they do I still have tons of air bubbles in pump through lid in basket at pump and never had them before this problem started. I also used to be able to only turn skimmer valve on and it would work fine without any air bubbles but now have constant bubbles in system, the builder says to leave main and skimmer valves open to help aleaviate the problem but still get a ton of air bubbles doing so. also have noticed that the pump will bleed down quite fast and within minutes but since last repair has stayed up for a few hours but after setting idle all night long it still bleeds down. I am not loosing water but am sucking air on the intake side how can I find the cause of the leak and can it be possible for the check valve in the return line after filter could be bad letting water drain from system after setting overnight. I have compared to several of the neighbors pools and theres do not bleed out and stay full and do not have air bubbles in the trap. I just want it to work as designed, it does have good pressure and good vacume but allways had that, its just it keeps loosing it and has happened like I said before 6 times in the past 2 months. Also I have replaced all orings in the jandy valves on intake, to no aval any help would be appreciated and also one more thing no matter which valve I have open on intake side being skimmer, main, or cleaner I still get bubbles so I do not feel it is in the pipeing under ground for they are all differant runs to the intake manifold with the 3 valves so dont think I could have leaks in all 3 lines all at the same time (highly unlikely) is there away to test the jandy valves to see if they are leaking
thanks in advance. for I have ran out of solutions and no it should be a simple fix

Jan R


rjinw
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Joined: Tue 26 Jun, 2007 18:10

bubbles in pump basket

Postby rjinw » Thu 28 Jun, 2007 19:16

Same thing happened with mine. Turned out to be tiny hairline cracks on the underside of the PVC pipe on either side of the "T" fitting into the basket. The way i found it was using a few feet of small rubber hose,one end to my ear the other probing around listening for hissing sounds (same way a mechanic looks for vacum leaks on a car engine)
Backglass
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Joined: Tue 29 May, 2007 09:02

Re: constant air bubels in basket at pump

Postby Backglass » Fri 29 Jun, 2007 13:17

jan r wrote:heat has worked very well in the past when the pump had a 1 hp motor but since the builder swapped pump motor to a 1.5 hp pump solar is not as efficient from water being pumped faster than before and head pressure has increased about 8 to 10 psi.and sets at about 18 psi with solar turned on and used to be at 8 to 10 psi with the 1 hp motor.


What was the reason for the initial pump swap-out to a larger pump? Perhaps you are just drastically oversized.

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