New to the neighborhood...

[BSpade]

I have inherited a property with an ancient Viking pool and will most likely have lots of questions about caring for the thing (sometimes known as the 'Green Monster'!

About the pool: it is a small pool, or a giant shoebox - 24'x11'x4'deep, 7899 gallons. Made by Viking, fiberglass, vintage sometime after 1965 or so. The pump is a new, with a 2 speed, 1 1/2 HP motor. The filter is original, a Nautilus 48 DE filter (which, currently, seems to be collecting air (which will be one of my questions). When not in use it is covered by a giant sheet of bubble-wrap like vinyl.

Hopefully you folk will have the answers, probably already have them somewhere in the forum.

Thanks, Ben

[Watermom]

If you haven't installed the pump, take it back. It is too big for your pool. When it comes to pool pumps, bigger is NOT better!

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

[BSpade]

The current problem is that there is air getting into the pump, and then into the filter. What I've read here indicates that there are air leaks somewhere before the pump intake, which is certainly possible considering the age of it all.

What are the specs of a more appropriate pump for my pool?

[PoolDoc]

You can keep the pump . . . provided you always, or almost always, run on low speed. Use high ONLY when you are cleaning, draining, or something similar.

Note the change in gallons: pool volume is water depth, not pool depth. (I assumed that the 4' dimension was the pool depth, and not actual water depth.)

Forgot about the suction leak! Read http://pool9.net/leak-s/

[BSpade]

You can keep the pump . . . provided you always, or almost always, run on low speed. Use high ONLY when you are cleaning, draining, or something similar.

Yes, that is what I was hoping/planning. At the moment, the speed selection is by flipping a switch, but I am, after all, retired..

Note the change in gallons: pool volume is water depth, not pool depth. (I assumed that the 4' dimension was the pool depth, and not actual water depth.)

And I reset the change - I did measure the actual water depth. There is about 10" of pool above the water level.

Forgot about the suction leak! Read http://pool9.net/leak-s/

Thanks - after reading that article, I found that there were a couple of threaded connections that were leaking - a bit of Teflon tape seems to have helped quite a bit. I suspect that I will find that there are other contributing factors, but this is at least a start.

[BSpade]

...
Forgot about the suction leak! Read http://pool9.net/leak-s/

I replaced the section of inlet pipe between where the inlet pipe comes out of the ground with a short curved piece of 1 1/2" Schedule 40 pipe (from the electrical department - wires seem less tolerant of sharp bends than water). With the new pipe I could take advantage of the 1/2 union that came with the pump (the pump inlet is the other half). The old pipe was composed of short pieces of pipe and 45 degree connectors and a 1 1/2" threaded connector and a a 1 1/2" to 2" threaded adapter, and was probably 10-20 years old, and was badly sun damaged, and the threads on the connectors seem to be worn enough that no amount of Teflon tape would keep it from sucking air.

Now, when the pump goes on, any air in the input strainer disappears with seconds, and the only air I see is one small bubble quivering in the handle portion of the clear plastic lid.

And the pool sweep (Polaris 380) seems to be quite happy with the main pump on low speed, so I don't plan to use high speed much.

Thanks for the help.

[PoolDoc]

Glad it worked out!