Dear Friends,
After being away from home for five months I got back to find my swimming pool (self-priming) pump when in filter position was not sucking enough for water to fill the chamber of the pump, and the automatic pool cleaner was not working.
The pump is a couple of feet (60 cms) above the level of the pool water. It has worked fine for about four years now. I switched off the pump and was surprised to see water backing up and coming out of the weir/skimmer. I had never seen this happen before.
When I switch the setting to "bypass/circulate" the pump works fine and the pump's water chamber self-primes and fills with water and air bubble come from the pool jets while it is doing this.
I cleaned the (sand) filter but still the same thing happens - when switching off from filter position, water backs up and wells up from the weir.. only a couple of litres (half gallon?) but still, it indicates that something is wrong.
When the pump runs on filter, more and more air enters the pump water chamber, so efficiency is lost, and once again the automatic pool cleaner fails to generate enough suction for it to work.
All of the pipes are under soil or cement paving slabs so not easy to check for leaks.
Does anyone has any ideas for me?
Many Thanks indeed for any help you may be able to offer.
Nick "Malawa"
After being away from home for five months I got back to find my swimming pool (self-priming) pump when in filter position was not sucking enough for water to fill the chamber of the pump, and the automatic pool cleaner was not working.
The pump is a couple of feet (60 cms) above the level of the pool water. It has worked fine for about four years now. I switched off the pump and was surprised to see water backing up and coming out of the weir/skimmer. I had never seen this happen before.
When I switch the setting to "bypass/circulate" the pump works fine and the pump's water chamber self-primes and fills with water and air bubble come from the pool jets while it is doing this.
I cleaned the (sand) filter but still the same thing happens - when switching off from filter position, water backs up and wells up from the weir.. only a couple of litres (half gallon?) but still, it indicates that something is wrong.
When the pump runs on filter, more and more air enters the pump water chamber, so efficiency is lost, and once again the automatic pool cleaner fails to generate enough suction for it to work.
All of the pipes are under soil or cement paving slabs so not easy to check for leaks.
Does anyone has any ideas for me?
Many Thanks indeed for any help you may be able to offer.
Nick "Malawa"