Replacing a motor on a pump, and getting the correct size for your pool?

[mas985]

Pump motors can get pretty hot but unless it is shutting off, it is probably ok. One reason to run on low most of time.

[mitchryan912]

After being down for a week, I wanted to get it going. I have an Intermatic T10604R timer to control it, but it's not hooked up yet. Probably should have the electrical ready for it by tomorrow (there was NO timer control whatsoever prior to this whole ordeal.)

I'll probably have it on low most of the time, shutting it down for about 6-10 hours a day at first, until I figure out how much I actually need to run it to keep it clean. Our yard has arbor vitae trees as a privacy fence around our whole yard, so the debris from them lands in the pool all the time. Probably can't shut the pump off completely for very long.

[mitchryan912]

...and the SQS1072 is smoking. Could this still be too large of a pump, or not large enough? The pump is having problems priming, and is overheating right about where it's getting close to being fully primed. Im at a loss as to what's going on...

[mas985]

The motor is the same size as the old motor so should be fine.

But make sure everything was installed properly (impeller ring, diffuser, seal, etc). Any misalignment can cause overloading in the motor. Otherwise, you might just have a bad motor. I can happen sometimes.

[mitchryan912]

I installed a vacuum gauge on the basket side today, and on its own, it wasn't able to get much more than 1 mm Hg. Later in the day, I stuck a drain king into the skimmer and had it blasting water towards the pump, and only then did it shoot up to 20+ mm Hg. The motor still kept shutting itself off before it was able to get full prime though.

[mitchryan912]

It ran just fine for a week before I changed some of the plumbing around. It would be easy to say THAT is the problem, but since we've owned the house, THREE motors in three different plumbing configurations have had problems that caused a motor to stop working. The pump that came with the house worked in the fall we bought the house, but then didn't start up the spring after. The replacement pump worked for a year, but then that motor failed. Now the new replacement motor that we bought on July 20th has died.

I've emailed the company I bought it from in hopes there is at least a 30 day warranty on it.

[CarlD]

Unfortunately it seems that one of two things is very wrong, possibly both.
First: there's got to be a problem with your plumbing, somewhere. But it's beyond me--I can handle the simple stuff and I always keep it simple.
Second: You may have a wiring problem, possibly trying to run a 220v pump at 110v or something more subtle.

I doubt it's the pump/motor itself. Not sure what, if any, guidance I can give you. You'll have to rely on Mark for that.

[mitchryan912]

Could the suction line simply be too high up for 1.5" flex PVC running back to the pool? I installed these 2" lines with the ability (hopefully) to hook them up to new 2" hard PVC when the next time we have to do major upgrades to the pool.



Or could a 70' 12 gauge run to the pump not be enough wire? Everything I'm seeing says that it is sufficient, but there's part of me that thinks it's just not enough.

The former is a PITA repair, but one that can be done. I pretty much have to trash everything I did, or use the inside 1.5" slips on the 3-way diverter valves I just bought. The latter is a $4000+ repair, as the main panel in the house needs to be upgraded before any electrician is going to run anything to the shed/pool.

[mitchryan912]

Could the previous motor failure have gotten the wet end hot enough to melt/deform it? I noticed last night that I could still see a small gap between the flange that's inbetween the suction side of the pump and the motor:



I poured water over it while it was running, but that didn't seem to do anything. I didn't feel any air being pushed out of the cavity either.