That was a Brilliant idea! Took about 5 minutes to get it going and that includes walking to the street to connect the hose, connect the drain bladder and everything! The frogs are not happy though... as soon as the return line started flowing and the water and bubbles poured out there was an exodus of frogs jumping out of the pool.... "Oh crap... the pump and filter working!"

One last question though... I haven't noticed any bubbles in the return jet output... If I do have a small leak, can I live with it if the pump is drawing water?

Once again... Brilliant!

Thanks,
Ed

Quote Originally Posted by Poconos View Post
Hi Ed,
You probably do have a suction side leak somewhere. All it takes is a very tiny leak to let enough air in to prevent the pump from self priming. The design of the pump, with the very small clearance between the impeller and housing, will create a very small vacuum that is usually enough to raise water a couple feet if your lucky, and start water flowing. These things are designed to be fluid pumps, not air pumps. When you fill the basket and fire the pump, dumping that water and emptying the basket is normal. To get the thing going you may try sticking a garden hose in one of the skimmer lines and stuffing a rag or something around it for a seal, then opening the valve to that one skimmer only. Fire the pump and turn on the water. This will force a constant supply of water on the suction side and should get the thing going. Then pull out the hose but don't let the rag get sucked in. If you have an air leak you'll see bubbles coming out the returns. Then slowly start opening the other return line valves and see what happens. Something else to try is if you have a multiport valve and can bypass the filter, try that. This should lower the resistance on the pressure side and assist in the priming process. Let us know what happens and we'll go from there.
Hope this helps.
Al