Pump not priming

[nicole12]

My neighbor just got a AG pool installed. I was over there tonight helping her set up the Proline sand filter & 1hp pump.

Everything went smooth until time to vacuum. As soon as air got into the pump the pump went almost totally dry and wouldn't fill with water again. The vacuum was literally stuck to the bottom of the pool floor so I quickly undid the vacuum and let the filter return to normal.

The pump however would not fill back up with water and the pressure dropped to 0. I had to turn off the pump and open the pump cover to let the air escape and refill. I tried vacuuming again and same thing happened so I told her to just let the filter run and I would ask my friends on this forum :)

I'm at a loss because my pump will always fill back up with water once it gets low.

[Poconos]

Maybe Waste, Waterbear, or someone else that knows for sure will chime in but I've seen this with Watermoms old AG pump before we changed to an IG pump on her AG pool. Almost like the silly things would vapor lock and not pump. My guess, and only an educated guess, would be the IG pumps have closer clearances and are designed to self prime and have the capability to creat enough of a vacuum to raise water at least 12" or so since they are typically located above the water level. A trick is to fill the hose with water by holding one end in front of a return before hooking it to the skimmer. You minimize the amount of air that gets in.
Al

[nicole12]

I was back over there last night checking for any possible small leak. The filter is running at 14psi the same psi it was when we first started the pool. The pump runs fine until the smallest bit of air is introduced via the skimmer. Then the pump runs dry the pressure goes to 0 and I shut it off. I filled the hose on the vaccum with water and just the small amount of air that went into the system when I connected the hose was enough to take the water from the pump.

They do have the pump about 8 feet away from the pool and have a 10' hose. I'm wondering if that is part of the problem.

[Watermom]

Before I got a new pump, I struggled with this very problem. I would go ahead and hook my vac head to the hose and the pole and then hold the other end of the hose against the return jet. Not momentarily, mind you, but for several minutes. I could watch all the big air bubbles come out of the submerged vac head and then smaller bubbles, and then when I could see no more bubbles coming out, I would very quickly put the plate into the skimmer. Sometimes I would not do it quickly enough and lose the prime and then have to start over. It was a huge pain in the butt! :mad: I can't offer any other suggestion other than to tell you how I did it, but I know how frustrating it is!

[nicole12]

watermom--how would you then get prime back? i shut off her filter and then open up the cover to the pump so it will fill and purge the air.

[Watermom]

Yep that is how I did it, just as you described above. A royal pain in the patootie!!!

[nicole12]

My neighbor just had her pool installed last week so this is a brand new pump/filter under warranty. Do you think something is wrong with the pump or it's just not powerful enough?

[Watermom]

I don't know, but I don't think it is related to the pump not being powerful enough because my old pump that was having this priming problem when vacuuming was a 1 HP pump and my new one is a 1/2 HP pump. The new one does not have this problem, so I doubt it is related to not being powerful enough.