Pump won't prime

Please help...Last year our pump would not keep its prime. We had soemone come out to do a pressure test and after 2 minutes said it wouldn't be worth it so they ddin't want to waste our money on it. Said we needed to replace the skimmer lines under the concrete. We were in the middle of a major kitchen remodel so we closed the pool until this year. No water leaks that we knows of.

Cut to this year, my husband cut out the concrete and bought the flexible PVC. When we called around for the flex PVC, we had a few people question why we would address the underground lines for a leak first when usually it's above ground ones that cause air in lines. With that info and once we viewed how deep the bottom of the skimmers were and how hard they were to get to, we decided to try to redo all the aboveground lines. My husband redid them in flex PVC. In the meantime, my 2, 4 & % year olds decided to play in the concrete holes. They dropped pea rock (from around the skimmer) into the skimmer. We vacuumed and blew out the lines and got the pump to prime.

Since the water was REALLY nasty and we wanted to coat the pool, we drained it through 2 sump pumps (not the backwash). We coated the pool, repainted the fiberglass sides...it looks beautiful. We were worried that some things might have been put down the maindrain so we blew that out and vaccumed also. We started filling the pool and my husband reconcreted the lines. Then tried to prime the pump. It now will NOT prime at all. We blew out the skimmer lines & return lines and we have re-heat-sealed all the PVC joints. When the pump is trying to run, you can hear a lot of gurgling in the line between the pump and filter so water IS getting in there. We checked the impeller and it's not blocked. We have read about using a "drain jet" but we called pool stores and they had no clue about where to find one (plumbing supply? Home Depot?). We can use a shop vac and pull water into the line or blow then into a turbulant boil but it barely is moving the water into the pump from the looks of it.

What should we try next??

Thanks!
Rene

Our Pool Basics:
In Ground Pool (Michigan)
15000gal freeform
Hayward Sand Filter
Hayward Super Pump 1HP

I am by no means an expert but have plumbed two filter systems in.
I hooked a system up for someone and couldnt get prime.
The gasket/o rings were missing from the valves. I have noticed that if their is something wrong with the unions you will suck air.

Maybe you should take a pic of the filter system and post it?

I would try and shut the main drain off and try to pull prime from the skimmer this si the easiest to catch prime

I also lost prime in my early days cause my water wasnt up enough and the skimmer was sucking air

And if using a hayward superpump i think their is a gasket on the cover that accesses the basket in the pump.

Hope this helps
Write back
Mike

Hayward tech support was great to ne if I ever had a problem