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MikeH

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  1. As an aside, if your chlorine level is 10 then nobody should be swimming until it is balanced. Waterbear is right on CYA levels. If you have a spa store nearby they normally have an automated testing machine that will tell you exactly what is needed to bring your water into balance.
  2. What is the set-up on the equipment pad? Does the MD join the two skimmers prior to the pump? If so, prime through the skimmers with the MD off. Once it runs for a minute or so, slowly open the MD valve ever so slightly. Air will come into the pump fo a short time, but eventuially should pull through the MD without air. Once that happens open MD in full. The other thing to check its that sometimes in cold climates, installers will put a valve stem in the supply like of the MD to allow for clearing the MD of water for winter pool closing. These stems can leak and if you have one put your finger tip over it while the pump is running to see if there is a leak in the valve seat.
  3. Some installations in colder climates have an air valve on the main drain (looks like a bike valve stem) to bleed the main lines when closing the pool for the winter. If you have one check that by puting your finger over it to see if the water flow improves.
  4. If there is no pressure reading on the filter and you are still getting water back into the pool, then the filter valve must be set to recirculate, thus by-passing the filter.
  5. I decided to order a new capacitor because there was no evidence of loose wires or bulging, arcing, etc. Once installed I will let you know.
  6. I have an inground pool and spa 10 years old. My spa pump is a Pentair Whisperlo WFE-2. The 1/2 HP motor was replaced about 3 years ago with an A.O. Smith and have had no problems. It runs 24/7, doesn't leak and is quiet. It is set to run 24/7 because the equipment pad sits about 2-3 feet above the spa and in the event of a power outage or a pinhole leak from a gasket somewhere it will lose prime over the course of an hour of shutdown. The spa is plumbed separate from the pool with it's own Triton sand filter and Laars Lite 2 heater. Within the last six weeks the pump has started to overheat and trigger the built-in thermal protection mechanism and shuts off periodically. It does not trip the circuit breaker. There is no change in sound and it doesn't leak so the seals are still good. The pump is classified as a conservation pump and has always run a little hotter than the original Pentair, but thermal shutoff hasn't been a problem. The only thing that has changed during this time is that I had to replace the Multiport valve leading into the filter. The valve plumbing design is slightly different from the original so i needed to add a couple more 90 degree elbows to plumb back into the filter line leading to the heater. I don't think this is a problem since the (clean) filter backpressure remained at about 13 psi. The overheating is inconsistent in that it generally corresponds to the hottest part of the day when it will shut off and then after an hour or so restart. Luckily at this point I have no supply side air leaks and it reprimes. Into the evening it frequently will run overnight without shutting down presumably because it is cooler. But all of this didn't happen 6 weeks ago so something has changed that is prompting the overheating. The original Pentair motor lasted 7 years, so i wouldn't expect the AO Smith motor to go bad after 3 years and there are no other indicators of such. I have read through a couple of online blogs that the run capacitor on the motor could go bad leading to overheating, but if the capacitor was bad I wouldn't expect it to be tied to ambient temperature. Is this a faulty assumption? Similarly, can the thermal protectors go bad all of a sudden? It seems the protector is doing its job. Any ideas would be helpful.
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