Pump making loud buzzing noise

Hello everyone
I have 27' AG round pool and it is my 4th summer with it. The water is clear, pump is working, but today when I was finished vacuuming, the pump starting making a loud buzz noise (constant) and continued. I turned it off for a little while, checked the filter, all clear, pressure is reading ok on gage when it is running, but it is really loud now. Is this a sign that the pump is on its way out? God I hope not! It has been running 24/7 for the last week but last year I also ran it pretty well 24/7 and it didn't make any noise.
I'm assuming since it is running, and pressure is ok, water is circulating it should be ok, but I can't understand why it all of the sudden got so loud.
I turned it off for now and will leave it shut off for a couple of hours, but I thought I would ask if anyone else had a similar thing happen and if so did you eventually have to get a new pump?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
Mary

Could be something caught in the impeller, especially right after vacuuming.

If you have the make/model someone here might be able to walk you thru getting to the impeller to check it, or perhaps you can find the info on the net.

-Chris

Usually you can at least get your fingers or a wire hook in via the pump basket housing. I agree with Chris that this is too coincidental with vacuuming. The clearances between the impeller and the pump housing aren't much and something small could have gotten caught. Something else to try, remove the basket lid and drain the water from the basket chamber so the pump is dry. Turn it on for a few seconds and listen to see if the noise is coming from the impeller area. Won't damage anything to run dry for even a minute or so. If it is something caught I would think the noise would be quite loud listening at the basket with no water in the pump.
Just a warning...be sure the pump can't accidentally come on when you're messing in the impeller area.
Al

Thanks so much for the replies. I will try that Al and let you know how I got along. My husband thinks that it is the pump on it's way out! All he can see is $$$ in his mind! I hope he is wrong!
Fortunately it is still running and water is crystal clear! Just really loud!
It's my day off today, and the sun is shinning. I'm going out to enjoy the deck (with the pump turned off!;)) for a few hours then I will try your suggestion.
Mary

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Islander2C

Thanks so much for the replies. I will try that Al and let you know how I got along. My husband thinks that it is the pump on it's way out! All he can see is $$$ in his mind!

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LOL. My next door neighbour has an above ground pool and his pump buzzes all the time, kinda loud, I've been waiting for it to die for 3 years now... At least it is in the back of his yard and isn't a bother.

Could also be very well the bearings in the pump motor. This is usually the sound it make when the bearing are going. Good thing is that you will only need to replace the motor and not the whole pump.

Or maybe just replace the bearings if they aren't too frozen in place. Assuming that is the problem. Normally bearings don't fail quickly as seems to be the case here.
Al

I'll toss in my 2 cents, only because I make my living working around industrial pumps and have worked on my own pool pump several times.
You have an object between the impeller and the housing.
If your pump bearings were going out, the first thing that would happen is the pump seal would start leaking, the seal doesn't have much tolerance for a shaft running out of round.
Since the wet end of these pumps is plastic, if the object is hard enough, it will eventually wear off enough of the impeller to pass through. That will cause the pump to lose some of it's efficiency, how much will depend on the size of the object that's tearing up the impeller.
I realize different people have different mechanical abilities, but with my pump, and most pool pumps I've seen, it only take 4 bolts to separate the motor and split the pump housings. If the electricity to the pump was connected with flexible conduit, removing the object from the pump is a 10 minute job.