Hayward Northstar pool pump will not turn on....

[Jay07]

I had a mechanical switch and Aquarite saltwater system installed last week. Today I noticed when I went to turn on my pool pump that the breaker had been tripped and the pump is not turning on. When I flip the mechanical switch to "on" the motor in the pump does hum however it doesn't not activate.

Any suggestions?

[PoolDoc]

. . . membership updated.

Could be a stuck impeller or motor bearings -- manually turning the impeller or the motor shaft can sometimes fix that. Another common cause is a bad capacitor.

Are those tasks you want to tackle yourself?

[Jay07]

Ben,

Thank you for the response. I was able to manually move the impeller with no issues however the pump is not engaging but it does have power. Should I be worried about a possible bad install with wiring when my new salter water system and mechanical timer was installed last Thursday? It worked through this week with no issues. I used a reputable pool and install company to do it that I will call on Monday morning to check it out as the pump maybe just burned out. It was installed in 2006, although I dont know the typical life span of a Northstar system.

[Jay07]

It was the capacitor..or is.

The capacitor on the motor doesn't show the correct mfd as it has been smudged off. I will wait until Monday morning to talk to a professional. In the meantime I quickly turned on and off a 55Mfd to test and the pump and motor operated correctly.

[PoolDoc]

Glad it worked out for you!

There's a fair chance you can find out the correct capacitor by calling Hayward -- hayward-pool.net .

(Ya know, it's kind of disorienting to me sometimes, to be switching between people who don't know what a "common" wire is or what role it plays in a 120V circuit, and people who do know what a "micro-farad" is! )

[nefretrameses]

"Micro farad" - Isn't that just a really REALLY small farad? (I crack myself up sometimes)

[PoolDoc]

Nah, it's just a 'little bit' of farad!