New motor or new pump?

[TomC]

After a day or two of making high pitched squealing sounds, my Whisperflo Dual speed pump motor finally died. When I try to power it up it just hums. The model of the pump is WFDS-26. It's about 13 years old. I can buy a new motor, shaft seals and gaskets for about $400. I can buy the same exact pump for about $620. So here are my questions:

1. For a $200 difference do you think I should buy the whole new pump, it seems like a better deal to me.

2. Is there a better pump out there for my money?

3. The only water feature I have is a pool slide, and the current pump, 1.5/ 0.25 hp, had no problem sending enough water to it.

4. I'm not inclined to upgrade to intelliflo for a third more in price

I did call my pool guy when the pump first started acting up 2 days ago, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet.

Any and all advice appreciated.

Tom

[Tom.B]

When we bought this house 14 years ago, our pump was very noisy. I managed to get a rebuild kit for the motor itself for just a few buck and did the work myself. Just pay attention to how the motor comes apart and you could save a bunch of money. FYI--- Still working fine after all this time and many years of running 24/7.

[Watermom]

@TomB --- you really don't need to run your pump 24/7. It will save you quite a bit of $$$ on power bills if you don't. 8-10 hours per day would be more than plenty.

[patrick3229]

Hi Tom - If it were me I would go with the B2982T dual speed replacement motor which comes with a digital timer, this motor can be found for $335 you would also need a 5250-106 seal which is about $15 this is a 1 HP full rate motor which would be identical to your 1.5 HP up rate motor. The B2982T has a digital timer right on top of the motor for easy programming. There typically is really no need to replace the pump housing and replacing the motor would be fine.

[Tom.B]

@TomB --- you really don't need to run your pump 24/7. It will save you quite a bit of $$$ on power bills if you don't. 8-10 hours per day would be more than plenty.

Yes... I know that NOOOWWWWW ;-) ... But I didn't know it when I was spending many thousands at the pool store every season. You keep forgetting what an idiot I was prior to finding this forum :-D I think I have the timer set to run it 10-11 hours a day (in two cycles) now.

[TomC]

Thanks for all the replies. I was able to find the entire pool pump online for $559, no tax, free shipping. I got it in about 2 days. Even though I had no filtration for about 5 days my pool stayed clear. I just ran my aquabot about 6 hours a day and my pool stayed nice and clean. I had to hand skim it though, no biggie, that's why I have sons

So the direct replacement for my whisperflo WFDS-26 pump was.....the same exact model. So I disconnected the old pump, rewired and connected the plumbing to the new pump and I was in business.

Yesterday, I took apart my old motor apart to find that the bearings were seized, maybe just one, but maybe both. I couldn't remove them. We have a guy here in town that fixes and rebuilds motors, he did my brother's pool motor 2 or 3 years ago. I'm going to bring it to him today, he said on the phone it may take him a week until he gets to it, and that the 2 bearings, motor shaft seal, should be less than a hundred bucks. I figure I'll keep it as a spare, or as an auxiliary pump should I ever get around to adding that waterfall my wife wants.

Tom