Air in pump basket after cleaning for first time

[cygnusecks]

All,

Recently cleaned my filter for the first time. During cleaning, after I opened the lid of the pump, the water level in the pump dropped (as expected) since I relieved some pressure by opening to clean the basket.

Anyway, after I cleaned and put the filter back together and re-installed the pump basket and lid, and re-started the system, there is now an air bubble in the top of the basket. It doesn't appear to hurt anything but I was wondering why this bubble won't go away. Before cleaning/opening the pump, there was no bubble, it was nice and tight with all water and no air. Now there is a bubble. Is it bad? How do I get rid of it?

[Sherra]

I've always had an air bubble in mine in both my old AG pool and now in my new IG pool. As long as there are no air bubbles coming through your return you should be fine!

[markphin]

It may or may not be bad, I'm not sure. But you are sucking air in from somewhere. And since it was not there before you opened the lid. Logic would dictate that you did not reseat properly. I would suggest starting over. Open the lid inspect/clean the gasket/o-ring, re-seat and tighten secure. If you still get air, take a hose and flush water around the lid and other areaslike the drain plug to see if the bubble goes away. Another way is to light a cigar and and run around lid and other fittings to see if smoke gets sucked in.

[ivyleager]

Same thing USED to happen to me. I found that making sure there is adequate silocone lube around O-ring on pump basket lid does the trick. Hope this helps you.

CaryB

[cygnusecks]

Well, today I took the lid off, hosed it off and there were also some dirt particles near the O-Ring which didn't wash off easily (they were embedded in the lube). Put the basket back on, fired up the pump, and the pump worked out most of the air but there was still a small bubble (about half the size as before). I was fine with this, so I left it, and came back an hour later and the bubble was gone! So, I think it was either:

1. Dirt on the O-Ring allowing tiny amounts of air into pump, or
2. The basket wasn't aligned quite right with the inlet hole, causing all incoming water to flow through the basket mesh before even entering the chamber. Maybe this caused some cavitation or something :-) When I replaced the basket, I aligned it correctly.

In any case, I am now pumping bubble-free!