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Pentair Pump Won't Prime Itself Anymore


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All of he sudden, when my timer turns on the pump, it just sucks and won't prime. If I open it, fill with water and bleed out the air, it works fine until the timer turns it off, but the next day, it turns on and won't prime by itself. By the way, it has worked perfect for the past couple of years, only started doing this a couple of days ago when the pool water got a little low and I had to refill it. It is working great after I manually prime it, but it won't prime itself anymore. Help!

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Could be that you have a small amount of debris on the lid o-ring. The o-ring and the groove/surface that it sits against must be totally clean of any debris or it will leak, air drawn in while running, and will allow it to drain out when the pump is off. Making for a difficult time priming in the morning. Is it possible that this started after you emptied the basket one day? Or the morning after actually.

When your pool ran low on water, did the pump run dry for any period of time?

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My pump did run dry for a little while, can't say how long, could have been an hour or so before I noticed. I know that it could burn up, but would it still work at all if it had. If I prime it manually, it works fine. Something new though, when I tested it this morning by turning it on, it took a little longer than normal, but after a minute primed and started, however, there is a leak, not on the pipes, but maybe where the motor is bolted to the filter basket holder, is there a gasket there that can go bad, allow air in and/or can be replaced?

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FYI, the pump and filter are at ground level with the pool, only about 10 feet away, it has really worked perfect for the past 10 years, the filter is abot 8 months old now and the whisperflo is about 2 years old and it only started acting up when the pool water got a little low and it started sucking air. I found a little rubber duck lodged in the strainer basket intake where the kreepy krauly hose connects blocking it up, I removed it and added water, but it doesn't want to prime right up like I am used to anymore.

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Sounds like when you ran it dry, it may of damaged the seals in the motor. It may have melted the impeller ring as well which would explain the priming problem. I would get a new seal kit and see if that helps.

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Sounds like when you ran it dry, it may of damaged the seals in the motor. It may have melted the impeller ring as well which would explain the priming problem. I would get a new seal kit and see if that helps.

Thanks for the info, I called Leslies and they say they have a revamp kit with orings for the pump, I am going to buy that and changem out tomorrow and see if that helps. Thanks again.

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Update:thanks for your help. I got the new seal kit and with the help of some pics of a seal install I found online was able to replace them and it is working good as new. Looks like it was leaking somewhere and the water in the basket holder thing would drain out overnight so it couldn't prime the next day, but now the area below he pump is as dry as bone. Thanks for the suggestions,got it all fixed up with now down time.

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