Pump Restart Issue when COLD

[elsie]

Well, on the coldest night of the season here in Alabama--when it was forecast to be in the teens overnight and I needed to run the pump--the noise in my pump upon start up was so loud I didn't dare run it. Fortunately I had wrapped all the pipes the week before in case of such an occurrence (or a power failure). Pool guy came yesterday. What it was all this time is that the inept pool service I used two years ago to replace the Sta-Rite motor did not replace the older seal, and it leaked water into the motor which destroyed the bearings. I did notice upon start up every time that a quick shot of water would shoot from the motor. So that was it. The wtaer killed the bearings. Apparently the Sta-Rite motor, made in Mexico, isn't of a real high quality, he told me, so I didn't bother with driving the old motor some 80 miles round trip to have it rebuilt at $70 for a back-up. Cost of replacement was $170 for the motor and I'm guessing $100 for the < hour labor (they'll bill me).

I was reassured by this service guy that in the event of a power failure in the winter on one of the nights it drops below freezing, that our freeze line is only a foot and even that never happens because our freezes are so brief, so not to worry about the skimmer or return lines. He said that wrapping the pipes and putting a blanket over the secondary trap will avert anything bursting. I'm relieved because it's so much easier not to have to deal with closing it each Fall. I can just do what I've been doing for four years which is wait for that perfect windless, dry day in early September to cover it and eventually take 10 minutes and $25 in various insulators to wrap pipes (I wouldn't cover it but for living on a heavily-treed lot). Have yet to find PVC foam that will fit over the 2" pipes, so it's piecemealed with that vertically and when I ran out and didn't want to drive to HD, a silver insulating wrap that I got at local hardware store. Then I used duct tape to keep everything hanging together. Looks like it belongs in the ghetto, but who cares in the winter?

I was also reassured to read recent posts on how long it generally takes for water to freeze. I can sleep easy now whether power or equipment failure.

[dawndenise]

If you're worried about your pressure gauge, you can put a styrofoam faucet/outdoor spigot cover over it. I use l-o-n-g bungee cords to hold it securely on the top of my cartridge filter. Knock on wood...so far, so good and our temps have dipped below freezing overnight almost every night since early December. During a cold week, we dipped into the single digits overnight and stayed below freezing during the day.