Pump malfunctioning

[waste]

Mark, I think that both you and Poconos may be on the right track. Here in Ct, the power co go permission to almost double the killowatt/ hour charge recently - they did it in 2 increases 3 mos. apart, but the electric bill increased substantially.
You say the pump was underfed (by water) for a time due to a leak, if the pump cavitated, you may have 'melted' some connections (the pump intake, the pump effluent fitting - AND the shaft seal which keeps water out of the moter) Is there water 'puddling' under the pump? (it's fairly obvious on a dry day). A leaking shaft seal will cause oxidation on the shaft and will result in a 'loud' motor. If the seal is bad, it's an incredibly easy fix (with a 1/4" nutdriver, a 9/16" socket wrench, with 10' extention, and a 7/16" open end wrench) - I could probably do it blindfolded (but we have to do this alot ) If you have the puddling/ leak I was talking about, please post back and I'll give you all the part #s to pick up to change the shaft seal and make it 'good as new'.

[markeast]

Thank you both very much! I will check out the pump to see if there is any water under it. The electric bill did go from roughly 3200 KW hours same time last year (before the pool) to about 4900 KW this year. I'll continue to compare the differences between electricity usage.

I'm relieved to know it may be easy to fix. First though, I've got to get the builder to find and fix the leak. They're currently working on a small leak they found in the water feature, but there's no way I'm losing this much water from that little leak.