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As soon as I
get the filter fixed, the pump starts to
die .
The bearings have been screaming off and on for a while now. Friday
morning when I started it, it promptly screamed then stopped
running. I waited a few minutes and tried again. It ran. I
went online and started doing a little research into how I
could fix it. I could get the motor rebuilt, replace the motor, or
replace the entire pump. Since ours is however-many years old,
we decided to go with a new pump. Newer pumps are
smaller, more efficient and use less energy. A local shop had
one for $495, but I found it online for $323. So it's ordered and
now we're waiting.
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Of course
it's never as easy as just bolting in the new part. Since the
current pipes are a different size
than the new pump, I'm going
to have to replace a few. That includes replacing a 3-way valve and
the pool
vacuum
filter.
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Finally it arrives on
Tuesday, but I was feeling a little behind on my riding so I put off
installing it till
Thursday. By the time Thursday rolled around,
I decided I should just wait till Saturday when I'd have more
time for the project in case it took longer than an evening.
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Saturday arrived and I
began the demolition phase of the project. This of course went
pretty quick.
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As much as I may have wanted
to simply tear this thing apart, I had to keep it around as a model
for the
installation of the new one.
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Now things got
tricky. I had to go to Home Depot to get all the fittings - both
electrical and plumbing. When
I got home (not only was it
raining), but I realized things weren't set up exactly as I had
thought. I had to go
back to Home Depot for more stuff. When I
got back, I realized I needed yet another part, but this required
a trip
to the pool store and Home Depot again. Meanwhile it's hot and humid
as all hell and I'm working my
hardest to keep myself hydrated
for the race I had the next day. Between pipes for the pump,
drinking
water, trips to Home Depot, and trips to the bathroom I
had a busy day.
My rain shelter.
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In
reconfiguring some things to fit the new pump I had to get a new one
of these (I actually ended up
getting two, and destroyed
another two - they're $45 each). This is called a Jandy Valve.
This one in
particular is a three-way valve. It's only supposed
to let you run two of the openings or a little bit of all
three.
I didn't realize this until I had broken two of them. In
trying to set my new one up the same way the old one
was, I was
removing the screws to change the oriantation of the valve inside.
When I unscrewed some of
the screws, their threads came out
with them. At this point it was after six on
Saturday. No pool store is
open at
that hour. I'd have to wait till Monday to complete the
install.
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Sunday after my mtb race, I
began dry fitting all the pieces. I guess I started about six on
Sunday.
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And finished in the
dark around nine that night.
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Monday
after work I added two junctions so i could disconnect the pump from
the system without having
to cut it out, then I went about
glueing all the pieces together. It took nearly three hours for me
to glue it
all together.
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I had to rig up some
light, so I could keep working.
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I finished
glueing everything around 10pm, then started the wiring. It was a
little after 11pm when I finished the wiring - too late to fire it
up and see how it worked. Tuesday morning before work, I started it
up. I now had a giant jacuzzi. Somewhere there was air getting into
the system and the pump was pushing it into the pool. It wasn't too
bad, so I went on to work.
At work I did a little research
and found air leaks are actually pretty easy to find and fix, since
air can only be sucked in between the pool intakes and the pump
impeller. That significantly limited the number of joints I made
that I had to check. The other easy thing about an air leak is that
it's usually a threaded fitting that's too tight or a gasket fitting
without enough lube on the gasket. When I got home from work, I
tried those things first and turned the pump back on. Within five
minutes, our power went out. It wasn't really enough time
to see if anything was fixed. The power remained out for twenty
eight hours. It wasn't until Thursday morning that I could
start it up again and see that my little fixes actually worked and
the air was gone.
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