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TryingToBeMyOwnPoolGuy

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Everything posted by TryingToBeMyOwnPoolGuy

  1. I just had my old hot tub removed, and am having a new one delivered. One problem is that the pavers that were the foundation for the previous hot tub (which was here when I bought the house ten years ago) have sagged about a half inch in the middle. One person suggested just pouring some quickcrete over the pavers (I am planning on using the patio mud version) to level the area. I think this should work because the previous hot tub probably packed the ground underneath the pavers, but the layer of quickcrete would be pretty thin (1/2 inch, but that's ok according to the instructions on the quickcrete bag). Has anyone in this forum ever tried this? It seems like a fairly unique situation.
  2. So, it turned out I had a suction side leak in my intake pipe - there was a quarter inch hole in the copper intake pipe, which was reducing the pressure getting to my KK! Now it works fine! ;-) thanks for the ideas, though!
  3. Hi folks - I have had a kreepy krauly for years and I really like it, because it has so few moving parts it hardly ever needs repair. The only thing I have had to do to it is replace the rubber pad (which wore out - called the "pleated seal" in the manual) and replace one other minor part that broke (the "roller bumper strap" - see parts figure to see what I am talking about). But now I am having a persistent problem with it not "catching" when it floats down to the pool floor (that is, sealing against the pool floor so that it then moves along the bottom). There is an adjustment where you move the weights on the line away from it if it is tilting back towards the line and towards it if it is tilted the other way, but this adjustment is not working for me now (see hose adjustment to see what I am talking about). It is tilting away from the line: i.e., it looks something like this: \ <- hose \ \ / <-kreepy krauly \/ ---------- <- pool bottom but not quite that extreme. One issue is it seems to be tilted to one side (i.e., orthogonally to this picture). Could the dive float, which has two floats on it to orient it correctly when it sinks be asymmetrically waterlogged?
  4. After about a year of having this problem, and having three pool guys come out, I finally figured it out. The last guy who came out showed me the rubber ball test. This is a test where you stop up the pipe with a ball (I used a tennis ball) at the suction side. If the ball comes up after a while, then the leak is below that point, as bubbles have come up and the ball comes free. If the ball stays without coming loose, then the pipe is good below that point. So, for example, at the bottom of the skimmer, you can remove everything so just the pipe hole is there, and put in the ball with the pump running, it should stay there. If it doesn't (pops up after a few minutes), then there is a leak in the pipe below that point. So, I tried doing this with the skimmer basket in, and it popped up. So I had a leak somewhere IN the skimmer housing. So I connected the Kreepy Krauly directly to the pipe, taking out the whole skimmer basket setup, and voila! problem solved, one year (at least) into having it....Now I have to clean the pump basket more often is all.
  5. Do you mean the spring-loaded in-line valve where it connects into the skimmer? I think it is ok, but I will check.
  6. Thanks, I have tried all those things (except the broken pipe) once, but I will try them again, as you suggest. I saw somewhere that shaving cream on the pipe fittings was a good way to tell... The main thing I probably have not done correctly in testing the pipes is using the hose to stop the leaks. How do you know you have "enough" water on the pipe fittings? Seems like using the hose is a tricky way to stop a leak. By the way, I don't believe I have any valves with o-rings on the suction side. There is just a pipe coming out of the ground and going directly into the pump. cheers, gary
  7. Hi folks - I have now taken the pump apart to check for things clogging the impeller - nope, everything was fine inside. I put it back together (replacing the pump seal), I also, on the advice of the guy at Leslie's, who said he had seen leaks in the filter cause bubbles - not sure how since this is the positive side of the pump, but what the heck, it is easy to do, I took the cover off the filter and put it back on making sure the giant O-ring was in place, and everything worked fine for a little while (I dunno, maybe 10-20 minutes??), but now it is back to cavitating (pump pressure running between 11 and 14 or so) and the kreepy krauly is sitting on the bottom of the pool doing nothing. After all that work, I performed the experiment Mark suggested. If I disconnect the Kreepy Krauly, the pump pressure returns to a nice steady value of 20, and *almost* all (but not *quite* all) of the bubbles disappear from the returns in about five minutes or so. There are no more bubbles in the pump filter window, no sounds of a struggling pump, etc. Again, there are no obstructions in the Kreepy Krauly (KK) tube, and if I plug in the KK again, it starts to work for a couple of minutes before the cavitation starts again. The bubbles return in full force, and the pump pressure oscillates between 10 and 14 pounds. At this point, my hypothesis is that the KK puts a bigger load on the pump, and causes it to suck in more air from some underground crack in the return pipe. Any other (cheaper?) ideas? If I want this checked out, what to I ask the pool guy to do? Is it called "camera the pipe"?
  8. By the way, this pump was supposed to have been replaced a a year and a half ago. Do these pictures look like a 1.5 year-old pump?? Here is the link again for your convenience... http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~gary/DSCN0056.jpg
  9. Ok, I took the pump apart and here is what the shaft looks like. http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~gary/DSCN0058.jpg other pictures, including the http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~gary/DSCN0057.jpg http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~gary/DSCN0056.jpg I am guessing that the air came in here, as I am guessing that this is not sealing properly with this kind of corrosion. Do I need a new pump?
  10. Great idea, Mark, will do! Any suggestion of how long I should wait? 5 minutes? A half hour? Yeah, sorry I wasn't clear in my original post. When I gave ranges for the pump pressure, I meant that it was oscillating between those two values. -gary
  11. Dear Mark - I may not be using the terminology correctly. By "cavitation," what I mean is the oscillation in the pump pressure, which makes the Kreepy Krauly hoses oscillate on the pool surface like an unseen hand is grabbing them. What is the proper term for that? Also, as I said, I checked all the K-K hoses and they are clear. -gary
  12. Dear txpoolguy - Thanks for the reply! As I said, the professional did a good job (I think) of re-sealing all the suction-side above ground joints, there was a satisfying vacuum release sound when I took the cover off the pump, and I checked the Kreepy hoses for debris and they are clear. So that leaves pump impeller debris on your list. I didn't feel any from the pump filter side, but I understand that it may not be reachable from there. I'll try taking it apart next weekend. Thanks!
  13. Hi folks - I am new on this forum, and I am sure this problem has been answered before. Having read some other answers, I am thinking about disassembling my pump, but it is in a difficult location and I want to hear what you say before I start. I've had this problem for months, so I hope you can help! Here's my info: 15kgal in-ground pool. passive solar water heater on my roof. PacFab WFE-3 3/4 HP pump (looks to be the same as Pentair) Hayward 3600 DE filter For the last 4.5 years, the system has worked well. This may be a red herring, BUT, I cleaned the Hayward filter one day (removing all of the old DE, cleaning it out, re-siliconing the gaskets, replacing the pressure gauge on the top, and recharging it). The problems seemed to start after that (or perhaps I did this because of the problem - now I can't remember). However, this seems like it can't be the problem, since it is on the positive pressure side. The symptoms: -air coming into pool from returns (more from one than the other) -cavitating pump, kreepy krauly -air under the pump cover. To be clear, it is full to just under the top, but there is air in the top. -kreepy krauly not working well at all -pressure at the filter varying between 8-12 due to cavitation (when the solar is on, see below). Usually it was up around 15-20 before this, and steady. -releasing the air valve bleeder on the top of the Hayward always releases some air, even though I have just bled it out. I don't know if this is typical or not. What I have done: 1. Using my home warranty I called a pool repair guy. He seemed very professional. They took apart the return pipes coming out of the ground and into my pump and resealed all of the joints. The problem persisted (i.e., there was low pressure), but the guy said I needed a bigger pump for my system. He seemed to not take into account that I told him the pump and kreepy krauly had worked just fine for 4.5 years before this, so I didn't understand why I suddenly needed a bigger pump. The pump has been replaced within the last few years. So then he said he thought that air was coming in via my kreepy krauly tubes. 2. I tried disconnecting the kreepy krauly, and the bubbles persist, but the cavitating stops. The pressure remains steady at around 13 when the solar is not engaged, it goes up to a steady 19 or so when the solar is circulating. 3. With the kreepy krauly connected, the cavitating comes back, and the pressure varies between 5&7 without the solar engaged, when I turn on the solar manually, initially the pressure goes up to around 15-17, then drops to 8-12. The bubbles are still there whether the solar is on or not. 4. I've checked all the hoses on the Kreepy Krauly and they aren't plugged - neither is the Kreepy Krauly for that matter. 5. I carefully cleaned the pump cover and re-greased the pump cover gasket with silicone. This seemed to help for a short while. Then I read in some forum that my pump might have a lot of debris in the vanes. So when I removed the pump cover to feel around inside, there was a definite vacuum release hiss, so I think that is sealing well. But I didn't feel anything in the vanes. So, could all of this just mean I need new tubes on my kreepy krauly? Or could there be debris I can't feel in my pump vanes? Or could there be an air leak under ground? Or in the solar (but I think that is on the positive side...?). Or all of the above? Thanks for any insight you can give!
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