November 5, 2025 • 21 mins
Air is the invisible enemy of a pool pump, and once it slips into the system, your prime is gone, your filter pressure dives, and your day gets longer. We zero in on the real reasons pumps refuse to prime and share the simple, reliable fixes working pros use to get water moving fast.
We start with the most common failure point—the pump lid O‑ring—and explain how age, dryness, and missing gaskets break the vacuum seal. From there, we tackle heat damage: low water leads to dry runs, scalding housings, warped baskets, and tiny leaks at threaded fittings and unions that are almost impossible to see. You’ll learn practical detection tricks, why high-heat fittings matter, and when a quick temporary wrap can confirm the diagnosis before you re‑plumb.
Then we walk through two priming methods that save routes. If you’ve got an attached spa, use spa suction to pull a quick prime and feather the valve back to pool without losing it. No spa? A drain bladder floods the skimmer line so the pump catches a full water column. We also cover low PSI caused by clogged impellers, how to free debris with a long screwdriver, and when to pull the motor for a proper clean. Add in diffuser wear, telltale turbulence, and the often-overlooked Jandy valve O‑ring, and you’ve got a complete field checklist that solves 95% of priming headaches.
• checking the pump lid O‑ring and proper lube
• finding heat‑warped fittings and union leaks
• using plastic wrap or tape to confirm air leaks
• spa suction feathering to restore prime
• drain bladder flooding for skimmer lines
• clearing clogged impellers with a screwdriver
• inspecting diffusers and wear rings for turbulence
• choosing and using lid removal tools safely
• diagnosing worn Jandy valve O‑rings and debris
• knowing when to stop and return with time
Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the pool guy coaching program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com
Support the Pool Guy Podcast Show Sponsors!
HASA
https://bit.ly/HASA
The Bottom Feeder. Save $100 with Code: DVB100
https://store.thebottomfeeder.com/
Try Skimmer FREE for 30 days:
https://getskimmer.com/poolguy
Get UPA Liability Insurance $64 a month! https://forms.gle/F9YoTWNQ8WnvT4QBA
Pool Guy Coaching: https://bit.ly/40wFE6y
Thanks for listening, and I hope you find the Podcast helpful! For other free resources to further help you:
Visit my Website: https://www.swimmingpoollearning.com
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SPL
Podcast Site: https://the-pool-guy-podcast-show.onpodium.com/
UPA General Liability Insurance Application: https://forms.gle/F9YoTWNQ8WnvT4QBA
Pool Guy Coaching Group
Join an exclusive network of Pool Service Technicians to access the industry’s leading commercial general liability insurance program. Protect your business.
Premium is $64 per month per member (additional $40 for employees and ICs)
$59 per month for Pool Guy coaching Members - join here! https://www.patreon.com/poolguycoaching
Limits are $1,000,000 in occurrence and $2,000,000 in the aggregate - Per member limits
[ $1,000,000 per occurrence and $4,000,000 aggregate available for $75 per month ]
$50,000 in HazMat Coverage - clean up on-site or over-the-road
Acid Wash Coverage - Full Limits
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:03):
Hey, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show.
In this episode, I'm gonna goover some problems you may have
with priming a pool pump.
And I'll give you some of thesolutions that should work about
95% of the time.
Nothing is 100%, but theseshould work most of the times
when you can't get a pool pumpto prime.
(01:24):
Are you a pool service prolooking to take your business to
the next level?
Join the pool guy coachingprogram.
Get expert advice, businesstips, exclusive content, and get
direct support.
From me, I'm a 35-year veteranin the industry.
Whether you're starting out orscaling up, I've got the tools
to help you succeed.
Learn more atswimmingpoollearning.com.
In general, most of the time thepool pump is not priming because
(01:49):
there is something that isinherently causing air to get
into the system at somelocation.
Since the pool pump needs acompletely closed, watertight
system to operate, if there'sany air getting in there from
any source, the pool pump won'tprime up.
(02:10):
Now typically the air source,the first thing that I would
check for is the most simplestthing to check for, which is the
pump lid O-ring.
And I remember one time,actually more than one time, but
this one time I was at a pooland it was a whisper flow pump,
and the customer said the pumpis not running.
So I went over there and Ichecked it out.
(02:32):
I took the lid off, filled itwith water, put the lid back on,
and it wasn't priming, and I wasperplexed because this pool
never gave me any problemsbefore.
And so I'm standing therelooking at the pump, and then I
look at the ground and I noticedthat the O-ring for the lid is
right there on the ground.
And lo and behold, the customersaw some debris in there.
(02:53):
They decided to clean it out.
And when the Pentera Whisperflowlid O-ring starts to wear out a
little bit, get old, they don'tkind of get flattened, they
actually fall right off the pumplid.
And so what had happened is thecustomer took the lid off,
cleaned the pump basket, put thelid back on, but the o-ring had
fallen off, which is againcommon when they start to get
(03:13):
old.
And so here I am wasting 10minutes trying to get this thing
primed when the solution was,and I should have looked at the
lid myself, that's on me.
The O-ring wasn't even on there.
So lid O-ring is the first thingthat I you'll notice as a
problem.
Always carry a bunch ofdifferent lid O-rings on your
truck for the pool pumps on yourroute.
(03:35):
If you have like a Hayward Super2 pub, Panther Whisper Flow,
Panther Superflow.
Having a a few of those O-ringsin your truck so you can change
them whenever you need to, isideal and a great way to make
sure that that problem doesn'tcause the pump not to prime.
Sometimes if you just lube it upreally well with magic lube,
(03:56):
that will also solve theproblem.
So that's the first thing Icheck is the pumplet O-ring.
Now something else that may notbe quite as obvious, and this
happens quite often when thepool runs low on water, the
equipment starts to get hot.
I've taken off pump lids andopened them up where the water
is like boiling hot from thepool being low on water.
(04:18):
And I pulled out the pumpbasket, and it looks like a
shrunken head kind of thing yousee in the movies, you know, the
cannibals in Africa, but it'sactually the pump basket all
shrunken and kind of melted, andthat's because it got super hot
in there.
And when these pumps run dry,they do produce a lot of heat.
And so one thing that can happenis that the threaded fittings on
(04:39):
the front and on top, the intakeand outlet, slightly melt a
little bit.
A lot of the pool pros likeusing the high heat Granger gray
intake and outlet threaded partson their pumps.
I prefer those myself as well.
They tend to withstand the heatbetter when you the pool runs
(05:00):
dry.
But nevertheless, if there is alittle bit of air getting in
there, you really can't tell.
There's different tricks likeyou know putting shaving cream
on there or soap and water asyou see bubbles, or lighting a
match and seeing if the smokegets pulled in there, things
like that.
But what I do, and this isgetting rarer and rare to be
able to do in California becausethe plastic bags are pretty much
(05:22):
banned everywhere.
But you can use trash bags forthis, like the thinner trash
bags, not the heavy-duty blackones.
But just tie a white trash bag,you know, what is it, a
20-gallon trash bag, around theintake and outlet.
You can also use theprofessional grade electric
tape, not the stuff you get atHome Depot, but more of a
(05:43):
plumbing electrical tape, andwrap the inlet and outlet of the
pump with that.
And if the pump primes up fine,then more than likely there is a
slight melt in that threadedpart letting air in.
So the solution for that, ofcourse, is to re-plumb the
intake and outlet of the pump.
I usually re-plumb both of thembecause even though you don't
see it on top, it is probably alittle bit melted.
(06:06):
But the intake is probablywhat's causing the problem, and
or even the outtake, I shouldsay, is causing the problem, and
it's not letting the pool primeup because water because air is
being sucked in there along withthe water when it's trying to
prime up.
And so that's the solutionthere.
Sometimes it's on unions, andthose union o-rings melt from
the heat as well.
(06:27):
So changing the O-rings in theunions is a good way, also.
If your pump has unions on topand in front, changing those
o-rings in a union will alsosolve this problem with the pump
overheated.
Let me share with you somepriming methods.
If you run into this problem,and let's say you tied bags
around the front and you youjust need to get it primed up
(06:47):
now, you change the lid O-ring,and of course that means that a
lot of air is in that pool line,so it can't really pull the
water from the skimmer becauseof all the air in there, and
that's why even if you put waterin the skimmer in the pump
basket, I should say, the wetend, and put the lid on, you'll
see it turn on and suck dryagain, and there'll just be like
(07:07):
a little bit of water downthere, but mostly air in there.
Because it really can't pull thewater, even if you fill up the
pump pot with water, it justcan't pull it to the pipe.
There's a couple of solutionshere.
The first one, if you have anattached spa, which is usually
most pools in my area have anattached spa that draws from the
same motor or pump.
(07:29):
Go ahead and put it in spasuction mode.
You can leave it in pool returnmode if you want, it's not a big
deal.
But just turn the valve so thatit's gonna be sucking from the
spa instead of sucking from theskimmer.
So once you do that, go aheadand turn on the pump.
And usually it'll prime becausethere's water in that line
(07:49):
already, and it could also begravity because the spa is
elevated, but typically there'swater in that spa line because
it didn't run dry, and it shouldprime up pretty fast.
Within about a minute or 30seconds, you should have the
pump priming.
So now it's sucking from thespa, returning to the pool,
which is fine.
Now you want to get the valve.
(08:09):
If it's a jandy valve, you canjust turn it yourself.
And as you start turning it backtowards pool section, you're
gonna see the pump cavitate.
So stop, turn it all the wayback to spa section again, then
turn it again until it startscavitating again, which means
there's air and water in thepump, and you'll see it kind of
struggling.
Then turn it back to spasection.
(08:30):
Keep doing that, and you'regonna get further and further to
the pool section, and eventuallyyou'll get full pool section and
it'll fire up and you'll have noproblem.
Now, if you have a valveactuator, you can do the same
thing.
Just flip the switch on it andthen stop it, flip it back
whenever you start to get toomuch air in there.
And that's kind of a reallysimple way to prime a pool if
(08:52):
you lose this if it loses thisprime and you have an attached
spa to it.
It works like 95% of the time.
I've never really had a majorfailure with that, and it's just
a little trick priming from thespa versus priming from the
skimmer.
Now, if you don't have anattached spa, what you can do is
get a drain bladder.
I prefer the cloth one, they'rethey're more expensive, they're
(09:14):
like 30 or 40 bucks at HomeDepot.
You can get a rubber one aswell.
If the customer has a gardenhose, by the way, you should
always carry a spare garden hosewith you in case the customer's
garden hoses are broken.
Most of them, the fronts likesmash down and you can't put a
nozzle on there.
It's kind of weird.
But like every other pool hosethat I'm trying to use at a
(09:35):
customer's garden hose that I'mtrying to use at a customer's
house has like the end of itcrushed or broken or whatever.
And I mean, whenever I get to acustomer's house and they have
like a beautiful garden hose,it's like you know, the pink
color with the nice brass endsand everything attaches and it
works great.
I'm thankful for that.
But very rarely you're gonnafind that.
So have your own garden hose,attach a drain bladder to it,
(09:57):
stick it as far into the skimmeras you can with the water off,
and then once you've found thatthe drain bladder can't go any
further in, turn on the hose andlet the water run for a minute
or two.
Now you're gonna see you cantake the pump lid off, also, go
over to the equipment and seethe water filling up.
So it should fill up the wholeline into the pump, and it
should be full falling over theedge of the pump, like flowing
(10:20):
over the top of it.
Then you put the lid on thepump, and this takes a little
bit of kind of fast action ormaneuvering, but go ahead and
(10:48):
turn the pump on, and then standover there by the garden hose,
uh hose spigot or bib, and oncethe once you hear it start to
prime up, turn the drain bladderoff, and it has to be timed
pretty well, otherwise you couldburst the drain bladder.
I've had this happen before, butespecially the ones that aren't
cloth that are rubber.
(11:09):
But turn the hose off once yousee it priming, and then pull
the drain bladder out, and youshould have a good prime there.
So that's kind of the twomethods of priming a pool.
When you've lost its prime,you've replaced the the bad
o-ring on the lid, or you've youknow you've done something else
to get it working, and you needto prime it at that point.
So that's the way we do it outthere.
(11:30):
There's those two methods thatare highly effective.
Another thing that you will runinto is that some debris gets
through the pump basket into theimpeller.
So when you get to the stop, thepool may be running, but the psi
on the filter may be down tolike three or four or five, it's
really low.
But you'll see a little bit ofwater in the pump, and you'll
(11:51):
see the pump sucking it, butyou'll see like 70% of inside
the pump is air with a littlebit of water, and that's why the
PSI is so low because it'sreally not filling up the filter
at that point.
What that is is usually debrisin the impeller, and it's pretty
easy to clear out.
One thing that you can do, Ijust carry a screwdriver that
has a pretty long neck on it orhead on it, just a flathead
(12:15):
screwdriver, and you put it inthere and you just first okay,
I'll start over.
You turn the equipment off, makesure it's off, then you take the
pump basket out, and then you'lltake the screwdriver and you'll
spin the impeller with it.
Some people create like a littletool with a hanger, but a
screwdriver is fine, and justspin the impeller a few times,
and it once you get it spinningfreely, you're gonna hear it
(12:35):
gurgle, you're gonna hear thewater gurgle gurgle in there,
and then that's kind of anindication that you cleared the
debris out of there.
So go ahead and fill up the pumpwith water, put the put the
basket back in first, fill it upwith water, put the lid on, and
then fire it up, and it shouldprime up pretty immediately.
Now, of course, if you lost ifit's lost its prime, then you
(12:56):
could do the steps I talkedabout earlier to get it primed
up.
Once you clear the impeller, thePSI should be back up to 20, and
you should have really good flowwith really no air in the lid,
and you should be good to go atthat point.
Sometimes there the debris inthe impeller actually clogs it
up around the impeller where itis in the seal plate, and you
(13:17):
have to take the motor off, andthen you'll have to inspect the
impeller physically and kind ofclear debris out.
Not super common in my area, butum I've seen it happen before
where like pellet debris getsstuck in the impeller and it
jams it.
And of course, taking it takingit off and cleaning the impeller
with your hands is the best wayto do it in that case.
(13:38):
But again, most of the time,like 90% of the time, when you
spin it with a screwdriver, it'sgonna clear the debris in there.
And typically the pump basketmight have a crack in it or a
tear in it.
Replace that before you puteverything back together, of
course.
Or if you don't have a pumpbasket, just make a note of it
for next time.
But the debris in the impellerwill also stop it from priming,
(13:58):
very similar to an air leak, andvery similar to maybe the pump
lid o-ring being worn out.
Sometimes the pump may be fineand priming, and you don't have
a problem with it.
The problem with you have isthat you can't get the lid off
the pump.
This happens a lot.
There's special tools that theymake for some of these lids,
like the uh haywear super pumpor haywear super 2 pump.
(14:20):
You have a special tool you canuse to get those lids off.
And then Penthare, of course,the whisper flow pump.
Sometimes those lids are onextremely tight, you can't get
them off.
And don't hurt yourself by likehitting it with your hand to
kind of hammer it.
Just carry your rubber malletwith you.
Go to the 99 cent store, DollarTree store, get a nice rubber
mallet, and then whenever youget to a Pentair Whisperflow
(14:42):
where the lid is on there reallygood, just hit one end of it
with the mallet that's thesticking out, and that should
loosen it up, no problem.
So you may run into that whereyou have a pump lid that's stuck
on there, but a lot of lids or alot of pumps do have a tool that
goes with it, so maybe do someresearch and see which pumps
(15:03):
you're gonna need a tool for.
And they have various ones, theyhave metal ones, and then they
have the plastic one thatHayward makes.
I think it's the HaywardSP3100T, and that's for those
Haywood pumps.
And the one that's made out ofmetals a little bit more
universal, you can use it forother pump lids as well.
There's some older ones that youmay need to use it for.
(15:23):
Some have like a groove inthere.
I've seen those like down thecenter, and you can actually
stick a long screwdriver, a bigscrewdriver in there, and you
can turn it that way.
But definitely get some of theselid removal tools and have them
on your truck so you can usethem to get the lids off pretty
easily that are stuck on there.
Because believe me, withoutthese tools, you cannot get some
(15:44):
of these lids off.
There's just no way humanlypossible to remove them.
And I've I've tried differentmethods without the special
design tools, and it's prettymuch futile without them.
You just need those to get theselids off.
Once in a while, you're gonnarun into a pump where the lid
doesn't go on too well, andsometimes if there's air in the
(16:05):
system, it'll actually blow thelid off or make the lid come
loose.
I've had this happen on a coupleof accounts, and I couldn't
figure out where the air wascoming from in one of these
accounts, and I know this ispretty tacky and it's kind of
like a really bad MacGyver kindof fix, but there was one super
super uh Hayward Super 2 pumpwhere the lid kept coming loose
(16:26):
and I couldn't figure out whatwas going on.
So what I did is I just put agiant cinder block on top of it,
and it seemed to work.
I've never had a problem withthat one popping off.
I've had a few Penta WhisperFlow lids of Air gets in the
system, and there's like a lotof pressure.
I've had those pop off as well.
It's kind of strange when acustomer calls you and says,
(16:46):
hey, the pump lid popped off,and you get to the pool, and
sure enough, it's not it's off.
So, what I usually do with thosewhisper flow lids where they're
they tend to pop, I'll just getmy rubber mallet and I'll just
do the opposite.
I'll just pound them on so thatthere's no chance of them coming
off.
But typically that's not theproblem you're gonna have.
The problem you're gonna have isthe opposite, not being able to
(17:06):
get the pump lid off versus pumplids that may be loose and can
pop off by themselves.
And the last thing I'll note isthat sometimes you have a
diffuser issue where thediffuser is worn out, and some
of the symptoms are similarwhere it's sucking a lot of air
in there and it's not pulling alot of water.
And if you tried a lot ofdifferent things like changing
the pumplet o-ring, making surethere's no air leaks in the
(17:28):
discharge and intake, makingsure there's nothing stuck in
the impeller.
Sometimes it is the diffuser.
If you have like again, thisHayward Super 2 pump has like a
clear white wear ring, andsometimes you'll find that like
you when you put the screwdriverin the impeller, you'll feel
that plastic wear ring whenyou're trying to spin it, and it
(17:48):
could jam up the impeller onthat wear ring as well.
But there are some occasionswhere the actual diffuser has
been worn out, and that's thepart that goes in front of the
impeller.
And for some reason, Penta theWhisper Flow uses like these
little Allen screws on there.
Can ever figure that out?
It's kind of irritating.
Takes you like 20 minutes to getthe diffuser off, but basically,
you know, the diffuser can wearout as well.
(18:10):
So that's like one more thing tocheck.
If you've checked everythingelse and you're still seeing
like kind of like air and water,but it's more like a turbulent
kind of air water when adiffuser is worn out.
It's I don't know if that makessense, but there's a lot more
turbulence in there when that'snot working because it's not
really diffusing the water, soto speak, properly.
So that's another thing to lookat as well.
(18:31):
If you do all of this and you'restill having trouble, somewhere
you can look also for airgetting in is over at a jandy
valve.
Sometimes those o-rings do wearout, they're pretty durable and
long-lasting, but if thoseo-rings do wear out in the jandy
valves themselves, they'repretty thin and they'll let air
in also, and it could cause apump, not the prime for that
(18:54):
reason as well.
Sometimes there's also debriscaught in the jandy valve as
well.
So take that off.
There's what eight or ten screwson top, pull it off, and then
you'll see if there's any debrisin there, and also inspect the
o-ring in there to see if it'sworn out and loop it up if it
doesn't look worn out, put itback in there, and that might
(19:14):
solve the problem.
But also carry some of thosejandy o-rings with you as well.
And the reason why I say jandyis because most builders, even
though they put pent airequipment in or haywood
equipment in, they'll still usethe jandy valves because they
are superior.
So you'll find that at least inmy case in my area, 90% of the
valves are jandy valves, andthere's a few Hayward valves and
(19:35):
pentair valves, but majority ofthose are jandy valves, and
they're usually pretty good andthey're pretty durable.
So that's something kind of as alast resort to look at.
And then finally, don't spendmore than five or ten minutes
trying to get the pool primedup.
If you can't get it working,leave everything shut off, and
then maybe go back there on aday where you're fresh, we can
(19:56):
look at it and get a betterperspective because you're
frustrated, time's ticking, youhaven't done anything at the
pool, and you have other stopsto get to.
So after about 10 minutesmaximum, you want to cut it and
just forget it at this point andget back to it later when you
have more time again to try totroubleshoot it and get the
pool, get the pump primed up.
(20:17):
Looking for other podcasts, youcan of course subscribe to my
YouTube channel Monday throughFriday, have an episode there
for you.
And if you're if you go to mywebsite, SwamiproLearning.com on
the banner, there's also apodcast icon with over 1700
podcasts for you there.
And if you're just in thecoaching program that I offer,
you can learn more atpoolguidecoaching.com.
Thanks for listening to thispodcast.
(20:38):
Have the rest of your week andGod bless.
Hey, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show.
In this episode, I'm gonna goover some problems you may have
with priming a pool pump.
And I'll give you some of thesolutions that should work about
95% of the time.
Nothing is 100%, but theseshould work most of the times
when you can't get a pool pumpto prime.
(01:24):
Are you a pool service prolooking to take your business to
the next level?
Join the pool guy coachingprogram.
Get expert advice, businesstips, exclusive content, and get
direct support.
From me, I'm a 35-year veteranin the industry.
Whether you're starting out orscaling up, I've got the tools
to help you succeed.
Learn more atswimmingpoollearning.com.
In general, most of the time thepool pump is not priming because
(01:49):
there is something that isinherently causing air to get
into the system at somelocation.
Since the pool pump needs acompletely closed, watertight
system to operate, if there'sany air getting in there from
any source, the pool pump won'tprime up.
(02:10):
Now typically the air source,the first thing that I would
check for is the most simplestthing to check for, which is the
pump lid O-ring.
And I remember one time,actually more than one time, but
this one time I was at a pooland it was a whisper flow pump,
and the customer said the pumpis not running.
So I went over there and Ichecked it out.
(02:32):
I took the lid off, filled itwith water, put the lid back on,
and it wasn't priming, and I wasperplexed because this pool
never gave me any problemsbefore.
And so I'm standing therelooking at the pump, and then I
look at the ground and I noticedthat the O-ring for the lid is
right there on the ground.
And lo and behold, the customersaw some debris in there.
(02:53):
They decided to clean it out.
And when the Pentera Whisperflowlid O-ring starts to wear out a
little bit, get old, they don'tkind of get flattened, they
actually fall right off the pumplid.
And so what had happened is thecustomer took the lid off,
cleaned the pump basket, put thelid back on, but the o-ring had
fallen off, which is againcommon when they start to get
(03:13):
old.
And so here I am wasting 10minutes trying to get this thing
primed when the solution was,and I should have looked at the
lid myself, that's on me.
The O-ring wasn't even on there.
So lid O-ring is the first thingthat I you'll notice as a
problem.
Always carry a bunch ofdifferent lid O-rings on your
truck for the pool pumps on yourroute.
(03:35):
If you have like a Hayward Super2 pub, Panther Whisper Flow,
Panther Superflow.
Having a a few of those O-ringsin your truck so you can change
them whenever you need to, isideal and a great way to make
sure that that problem doesn'tcause the pump not to prime.
Sometimes if you just lube it upreally well with magic lube,
(03:56):
that will also solve theproblem.
So that's the first thing Icheck is the pumplet O-ring.
Now something else that may notbe quite as obvious, and this
happens quite often when thepool runs low on water, the
equipment starts to get hot.
I've taken off pump lids andopened them up where the water
is like boiling hot from thepool being low on water.
(04:18):
And I pulled out the pumpbasket, and it looks like a
shrunken head kind of thing yousee in the movies, you know, the
cannibals in Africa, but it'sactually the pump basket all
shrunken and kind of melted, andthat's because it got super hot
in there.
And when these pumps run dry,they do produce a lot of heat.
And so one thing that can happenis that the threaded fittings on
(04:39):
the front and on top, the intakeand outlet, slightly melt a
little bit.
A lot of the pool pros likeusing the high heat Granger gray
intake and outlet threaded partson their pumps.
I prefer those myself as well.
They tend to withstand the heatbetter when you the pool runs
(05:00):
dry.
But nevertheless, if there is alittle bit of air getting in
there, you really can't tell.
There's different tricks likeyou know putting shaving cream
on there or soap and water asyou see bubbles, or lighting a
match and seeing if the smokegets pulled in there, things
like that.
But what I do, and this isgetting rarer and rare to be
able to do in California becausethe plastic bags are pretty much
(05:22):
banned everywhere.
But you can use trash bags forthis, like the thinner trash
bags, not the heavy-duty blackones.
But just tie a white trash bag,you know, what is it, a
20-gallon trash bag, around theintake and outlet.
You can also use theprofessional grade electric
tape, not the stuff you get atHome Depot, but more of a
(05:43):
plumbing electrical tape, andwrap the inlet and outlet of the
pump with that.
And if the pump primes up fine,then more than likely there is a
slight melt in that threadedpart letting air in.
So the solution for that, ofcourse, is to re-plumb the
intake and outlet of the pump.
I usually re-plumb both of thembecause even though you don't
see it on top, it is probably alittle bit melted.
(06:06):
But the intake is probablywhat's causing the problem, and
or even the outtake, I shouldsay, is causing the problem, and
it's not letting the pool primeup because water because air is
being sucked in there along withthe water when it's trying to
prime up.
And so that's the solutionthere.
Sometimes it's on unions, andthose union o-rings melt from
the heat as well.
(06:27):
So changing the O-rings in theunions is a good way, also.
If your pump has unions on topand in front, changing those
o-rings in a union will alsosolve this problem with the pump
overheated.
Let me share with you somepriming methods.
If you run into this problem,and let's say you tied bags
around the front and you youjust need to get it primed up
(06:47):
now, you change the lid O-ring,and of course that means that a
lot of air is in that pool line,so it can't really pull the
water from the skimmer becauseof all the air in there, and
that's why even if you put waterin the skimmer in the pump
basket, I should say, the wetend, and put the lid on, you'll
see it turn on and suck dryagain, and there'll just be like
(07:07):
a little bit of water downthere, but mostly air in there.
Because it really can't pull thewater, even if you fill up the
pump pot with water, it justcan't pull it to the pipe.
There's a couple of solutionshere.
The first one, if you have anattached spa, which is usually
most pools in my area have anattached spa that draws from the
same motor or pump.
(07:29):
Go ahead and put it in spasuction mode.
You can leave it in pool returnmode if you want, it's not a big
deal.
But just turn the valve so thatit's gonna be sucking from the
spa instead of sucking from theskimmer.
So once you do that, go aheadand turn on the pump.
And usually it'll prime becausethere's water in that line
(07:49):
already, and it could also begravity because the spa is
elevated, but typically there'swater in that spa line because
it didn't run dry, and it shouldprime up pretty fast.
Within about a minute or 30seconds, you should have the
pump priming.
So now it's sucking from thespa, returning to the pool,
which is fine.
Now you want to get the valve.
(08:09):
If it's a jandy valve, you canjust turn it yourself.
And as you start turning it backtowards pool section, you're
gonna see the pump cavitate.
So stop, turn it all the wayback to spa section again, then
turn it again until it startscavitating again, which means
there's air and water in thepump, and you'll see it kind of
struggling.
Then turn it back to spasection.
(08:30):
Keep doing that, and you'regonna get further and further to
the pool section, and eventuallyyou'll get full pool section and
it'll fire up and you'll have noproblem.
Now, if you have a valveactuator, you can do the same
thing.
Just flip the switch on it andthen stop it, flip it back
whenever you start to get toomuch air in there.
And that's kind of a reallysimple way to prime a pool if
(08:52):
you lose this if it loses thisprime and you have an attached
spa to it.
It works like 95% of the time.
I've never really had a majorfailure with that, and it's just
a little trick priming from thespa versus priming from the
skimmer.
Now, if you don't have anattached spa, what you can do is
get a drain bladder.
I prefer the cloth one, they'rethey're more expensive, they're
(09:14):
like 30 or 40 bucks at HomeDepot.
You can get a rubber one aswell.
If the customer has a gardenhose, by the way, you should
always carry a spare garden hosewith you in case the customer's
garden hoses are broken.
Most of them, the fronts likesmash down and you can't put a
nozzle on there.
It's kind of weird.
But like every other pool hosethat I'm trying to use at a
(09:35):
customer's garden hose that I'mtrying to use at a customer's
house has like the end of itcrushed or broken or whatever.
And I mean, whenever I get to acustomer's house and they have
like a beautiful garden hose,it's like you know, the pink
color with the nice brass endsand everything attaches and it
works great.
I'm thankful for that.
But very rarely you're gonnafind that.
So have your own garden hose,attach a drain bladder to it,
(09:57):
stick it as far into the skimmeras you can with the water off,
and then once you've found thatthe drain bladder can't go any
further in, turn on the hose andlet the water run for a minute
or two.
Now you're gonna see you cantake the pump lid off, also, go
over to the equipment and seethe water filling up.
So it should fill up the wholeline into the pump, and it
should be full falling over theedge of the pump, like flowing
(10:20):
over the top of it.
Then you put the lid on thepump, and this takes a little
bit of kind of fast action ormaneuvering, but go ahead and
(10:48):
turn the pump on, and then standover there by the garden hose,
uh hose spigot or bib, and oncethe once you hear it start to
prime up, turn the drain bladderoff, and it has to be timed
pretty well, otherwise you couldburst the drain bladder.
I've had this happen before, butespecially the ones that aren't
cloth that are rubber.
(11:09):
But turn the hose off once yousee it priming, and then pull
the drain bladder out, and youshould have a good prime there.
So that's kind of the twomethods of priming a pool.
When you've lost its prime,you've replaced the the bad
o-ring on the lid, or you've youknow you've done something else
to get it working, and you needto prime it at that point.
So that's the way we do it outthere.
(11:30):
There's those two methods thatare highly effective.
Another thing that you will runinto is that some debris gets
through the pump basket into theimpeller.
So when you get to the stop, thepool may be running, but the psi
on the filter may be down tolike three or four or five, it's
really low.
But you'll see a little bit ofwater in the pump, and you'll
(11:51):
see the pump sucking it, butyou'll see like 70% of inside
the pump is air with a littlebit of water, and that's why the
PSI is so low because it'sreally not filling up the filter
at that point.
What that is is usually debrisin the impeller, and it's pretty
easy to clear out.
One thing that you can do, Ijust carry a screwdriver that
has a pretty long neck on it orhead on it, just a flathead
(12:15):
screwdriver, and you put it inthere and you just first okay,
I'll start over.
You turn the equipment off, makesure it's off, then you take the
pump basket out, and then you'lltake the screwdriver and you'll
spin the impeller with it.
Some people create like a littletool with a hanger, but a
screwdriver is fine, and justspin the impeller a few times,
and it once you get it spinningfreely, you're gonna hear it
(12:35):
gurgle, you're gonna hear thewater gurgle gurgle in there,
and then that's kind of anindication that you cleared the
debris out of there.
So go ahead and fill up the pumpwith water, put the put the
basket back in first, fill it upwith water, put the lid on, and
then fire it up, and it shouldprime up pretty immediately.
Now, of course, if you lost ifit's lost its prime, then you
(12:56):
could do the steps I talkedabout earlier to get it primed
up.
Once you clear the impeller, thePSI should be back up to 20, and
you should have really good flowwith really no air in the lid,
and you should be good to go atthat point.
Sometimes there the debris inthe impeller actually clogs it
up around the impeller where itis in the seal plate, and you
(13:17):
have to take the motor off, andthen you'll have to inspect the
impeller physically and kind ofclear debris out.
Not super common in my area, butum I've seen it happen before
where like pellet debris getsstuck in the impeller and it
jams it.
And of course, taking it takingit off and cleaning the impeller
with your hands is the best wayto do it in that case.
(13:38):
But again, most of the time,like 90% of the time, when you
spin it with a screwdriver, it'sgonna clear the debris in there.
And typically the pump basketmight have a crack in it or a
tear in it.
Replace that before you puteverything back together, of
course.
Or if you don't have a pumpbasket, just make a note of it
for next time.
But the debris in the impellerwill also stop it from priming,
(13:58):
very similar to an air leak, andvery similar to maybe the pump
lid o-ring being worn out.
Sometimes the pump may be fineand priming, and you don't have
a problem with it.
The problem with you have isthat you can't get the lid off
the pump.
This happens a lot.
There's special tools that theymake for some of these lids,
like the uh haywear super pumpor haywear super 2 pump.
(14:20):
You have a special tool you canuse to get those lids off.
And then Penthare, of course,the whisper flow pump.
Sometimes those lids are onextremely tight, you can't get
them off.
And don't hurt yourself by likehitting it with your hand to
kind of hammer it.
Just carry your rubber malletwith you.
Go to the 99 cent store, DollarTree store, get a nice rubber
mallet, and then whenever youget to a Pentair Whisperflow
(14:42):
where the lid is on there reallygood, just hit one end of it
with the mallet that's thesticking out, and that should
loosen it up, no problem.
So you may run into that whereyou have a pump lid that's stuck
on there, but a lot of lids or alot of pumps do have a tool that
goes with it, so maybe do someresearch and see which pumps
(15:03):
you're gonna need a tool for.
And they have various ones, theyhave metal ones, and then they
have the plastic one thatHayward makes.
I think it's the HaywardSP3100T, and that's for those
Haywood pumps.
And the one that's made out ofmetals a little bit more
universal, you can use it forother pump lids as well.
There's some older ones that youmay need to use it for.
(15:23):
Some have like a groove inthere.
I've seen those like down thecenter, and you can actually
stick a long screwdriver, a bigscrewdriver in there, and you
can turn it that way.
But definitely get some of theselid removal tools and have them
on your truck so you can usethem to get the lids off pretty
easily that are stuck on there.
Because believe me, withoutthese tools, you cannot get some
(15:44):
of these lids off.
There's just no way humanlypossible to remove them.
And I've I've tried differentmethods without the special
design tools, and it's prettymuch futile without them.
You just need those to get theselids off.
Once in a while, you're gonnarun into a pump where the lid
doesn't go on too well, andsometimes if there's air in the
(16:05):
system, it'll actually blow thelid off or make the lid come
loose.
I've had this happen on a coupleof accounts, and I couldn't
figure out where the air wascoming from in one of these
accounts, and I know this ispretty tacky and it's kind of
like a really bad MacGyver kindof fix, but there was one super
super uh Hayward Super 2 pumpwhere the lid kept coming loose
(16:26):
and I couldn't figure out whatwas going on.
So what I did is I just put agiant cinder block on top of it,
and it seemed to work.
I've never had a problem withthat one popping off.
I've had a few Penta WhisperFlow lids of Air gets in the
system, and there's like a lotof pressure.
I've had those pop off as well.
It's kind of strange when acustomer calls you and says,
(16:46):
hey, the pump lid popped off,and you get to the pool, and
sure enough, it's not it's off.
So, what I usually do with thosewhisper flow lids where they're
they tend to pop, I'll just getmy rubber mallet and I'll just
do the opposite.
I'll just pound them on so thatthere's no chance of them coming
off.
But typically that's not theproblem you're gonna have.
The problem you're gonna have isthe opposite, not being able to
(17:06):
get the pump lid off versus pumplids that may be loose and can
pop off by themselves.
And the last thing I'll note isthat sometimes you have a
diffuser issue where thediffuser is worn out, and some
of the symptoms are similarwhere it's sucking a lot of air
in there and it's not pulling alot of water.
And if you tried a lot ofdifferent things like changing
the pumplet o-ring, making surethere's no air leaks in the
(17:28):
discharge and intake, makingsure there's nothing stuck in
the impeller.
Sometimes it is the diffuser.
If you have like again, thisHayward Super 2 pump has like a
clear white wear ring, andsometimes you'll find that like
you when you put the screwdriverin the impeller, you'll feel
that plastic wear ring whenyou're trying to spin it, and it
(17:48):
could jam up the impeller onthat wear ring as well.
But there are some occasionswhere the actual diffuser has
been worn out, and that's thepart that goes in front of the
impeller.
And for some reason, Penta theWhisper Flow uses like these
little Allen screws on there.
Can ever figure that out?
It's kind of irritating.
Takes you like 20 minutes to getthe diffuser off, but basically,
you know, the diffuser can wearout as well.
(18:10):
So that's like one more thing tocheck.
If you've checked everythingelse and you're still seeing
like kind of like air and water,but it's more like a turbulent
kind of air water when adiffuser is worn out.
It's I don't know if that makessense, but there's a lot more
turbulence in there when that'snot working because it's not
really diffusing the water, soto speak, properly.
So that's another thing to lookat as well.
(18:31):
If you do all of this and you'restill having trouble, somewhere
you can look also for airgetting in is over at a jandy
valve.
Sometimes those o-rings do wearout, they're pretty durable and
long-lasting, but if thoseo-rings do wear out in the jandy
valves themselves, they'repretty thin and they'll let air
in also, and it could cause apump, not the prime for that
(18:54):
reason as well.
Sometimes there's also debriscaught in the jandy valve as
well.
So take that off.
There's what eight or ten screwson top, pull it off, and then
you'll see if there's any debrisin there, and also inspect the
o-ring in there to see if it'sworn out and loop it up if it
doesn't look worn out, put itback in there, and that might
(19:14):
solve the problem.
But also carry some of thosejandy o-rings with you as well.
And the reason why I say jandyis because most builders, even
though they put pent airequipment in or haywood
equipment in, they'll still usethe jandy valves because they
are superior.
So you'll find that at least inmy case in my area, 90% of the
valves are jandy valves, andthere's a few Hayward valves and
(19:35):
pentair valves, but majority ofthose are jandy valves, and
they're usually pretty good andthey're pretty durable.
So that's something kind of as alast resort to look at.
And then finally, don't spendmore than five or ten minutes
trying to get the pool primedup.
If you can't get it working,leave everything shut off, and
then maybe go back there on aday where you're fresh, we can
(19:56):
look at it and get a betterperspective because you're
frustrated, time's ticking, youhaven't done anything at the
pool, and you have other stopsto get to.
So after about 10 minutesmaximum, you want to cut it and
just forget it at this point andget back to it later when you
have more time again to try totroubleshoot it and get the
pool, get the pump primed up.
(20:17):
Looking for other podcasts, youcan of course subscribe to my
YouTube channel Monday throughFriday, have an episode there
for you.
And if you're if you go to mywebsite, SwamiproLearning.com on
the banner, there's also apodcast icon with over 1700
podcasts for you there.
And if you're just in thecoaching program that I offer,
you can learn more atpoolguidecoaching.com.
Thanks for listening to thispodcast.
(20:38):
Have the rest of your week andGod bless.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.