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Your pump is one of the most important pieces of equipment in your pool. Without it, your water would be disgusting and stagnant. But how does a pump actually work? And what do you do when your pump’s NOT working?
Creators & Guests
What is Pool School?
A podcast for pool owners covering pool maintenance and water chemistry.
Everyone. And welcome to Pool School by Swim University where we help you keep your pool clean and clear all year. My name is Matt. Hi. I am the founder of swimuniversity.com.
Matt Giovanisci:And on this episode, we're talking about your pool pump, how it works, and some more troubleshooting tips. Let's dive in. Real quick. If you want more help taking care of your pool, you can grab our free pool care cheat sheet at swimu.com/cheat sheet. Or if you want a custom pool care plan, you can just go to swimu.com.
Matt Giovanisci:Your pump is one of the most important pieces of equipment in your pool. Because without it, your water wouldn't circulate through your filter system and your pool would be disgusting and stagnant. But how does a pump actually work? And when do you know when it's not working? So let's talk about how a pump works.
Matt Giovanisci:Your pump is the heart of your pool. It pumps water through your plumbing and your filter system. So when your pump is running, your water is actively getting filtered and it's helping to circulate and disperse any chemicals in your water. So here's, a breakdown on how the water flows. So your pump sucks in water from the pool through the skimmers or the main drains at the bottom of the pool and into what's called the suction lines.
Matt Giovanisci:This is the suction side of your pool. Right? Anything that's being pulled in from your pool. And as the water passes through the pump, the force changes from pulling to pushing, and the pump pushes the water into your filter. Now you might also have a heater, a chlorinator, a salt water system.
Matt Giovanisci:That's all that all takes place after the filter, after the water's been filtered. As it passes through it, the water is pushed through the return lines and back through the pressure side of your pool. And then it flows out your return jets and back into your pool. If you look at the plumbing lines that lead to your pump, you might see more than 1 you might see like a valve or you might see a a few valves. These control the water flowing into the pump.
Matt Giovanisci:And you might use these valves to say temporarily stop the flow of water if you need to work on your pump or your filter system. And it might be just a simple shutoff valve or it could be a three way valve that controls the that controls the flow of water from the skimmers or the main drain. And when we say main drain, you usually see 1 or 2 of these at the bottom of a deep end of an in ground pool. They don't really have main drains and above ground pools. Okay.
Matt Giovanisci:So here's the anatomy of a pool pump. Knowing each piece is actually pretty helpful for troubleshooting if you have any problems in the future. So the first thing is the pump lid. So the lid needs to be completely sealed tight to keep air out of your pump and the suction in your lines. If air gets in, you will see bubbles and it will not be sucking as well.
Matt Giovanisci:Number 2 is the is what's called the pump strainer housing and that is a bucket basically that the lid fits on, with a pump basket. And this is where the water first enters the pump. The basket collects any debris so it doesn't clog up the spinning impeller inside the pump and that's what that's for. On that, you'll see the drain plug. And this is used to drain the pump during winterization.
Matt Giovanisci:You may have 1 you may have like more than 1 drain plug. In ground pumps tend to have 2 and yeah. So one, you can you make sure that when you winterize them, you undo both of them but just look for 1 or 2. The one will be in the front and then one will be on the side. Then you have the pump housing with the impeller.
Matt Giovanisci:So, this is the main control center where the impeller, the diffuser, and the seals live, not the ones in the ocean. Just regular regular seals, things that seal things shut. The impeller spins on the motor shaft creating a vacuum that pulls water from your pool and pushes it towards your filter. And if it gets clogged or jammed, the whole pump just stops working. Then you have the bulk of it, which is the motor and the shaft.
Matt Giovanisci:And the motor is the big heavy metal part on the back of the of the pump and it's what spins the impeller. So the the the pump motor just has a shaft which is just a metal rod that attaches to the impeller and that is really simple. That's all it really is. Now, let's talk about the pump size. Right?
Matt Giovanisci:So your pump needs to be powerful enough to pull in and filter all of the water in your pool at least once a day. This is what's called the turnover rate. It usually means running your pump for at least 8 hours a day to filter all of your water. But if you want an exact number, here's how you can calculate if you here's you can calculate your turnover rate. Alright?
Matt Giovanisci:So first, you wanna start with your pool's volume, your pool size in gallons. Alright? So, if you're on the metric system, don't use that, just convert it to gallons because this is what we're gonna do to make the math work. Then you're gonna divide that by your pump's horsepower or the flow rate which is usually in gallons per minute or GPM. And then that will give you your turnover rate in minutes.
Matt Giovanisci:Right? So for example, if your pool is 15,000 gallons and you have a pump with a flow rate of 40 GPM or gallons per minute, you'll have a turnover rate of 375 minutes. Divide that by 60 and that means that you'll have, it'll take little a little over 6 hours to filter all of the water in your pool. Making sure that your pump is running enough and it will help prevent water issues. Alright?
Matt Giovanisci:So finally, let's talk about pump maintenance and troubleshooting. So here's what to check on to make sure that your pump is working properly. This is especially important if your pump has been turned off for a while, like if like through the winter time. Or if it's just been really nice and you didn't have to run your pump that often. So first thing you wanna do is check your pump basket.
Matt Giovanisci:Because any debris not caught in your skimmer basket at the pool can make its way into your pump basket. So check and empty your pump basket. And only remove the pump basket when the pump is off cause that's gonna be, that's not good. Don't do that. Number 2 is you wanna check your pump lid seal.
Matt Giovanisci:So the actual lid, if it's not sealed properly, like I said earlier, air can get into your system. So you wanna check the lids o ring for any cracks or damages. And the way that you do that is you literally have to take the o ring off of the pump lid and squeeze it between your fingers around the entire thing to see if it has any visible cracks. Right? If it doesn't, that means your o ring is good to go and you can use a lubricant specifically made for o rings or you have to replace the o ring completely if it's worn out.
Matt Giovanisci:Right? Any cracks in the o ring means you need to replace it. Very cheap. And it will save you just a ton of hassle. Then, you're gonna check your pump's connections.
Matt Giovanisci:Any weak connections can introduce air into the system as well. So inspect, any unions that you have and connection points between the pump and the plumbing lines. You may also wanna consider adding plumber's tape to any looser connection points to prevent air leaks. And plumber's tape or Teflon tape is this white tape that you wrap around threads. So anything that you have threaded, you might there might be air getting in there and plumbers tape can help with that.
Matt Giovanisci:Number 4 is you wanna keep your water level at least halfway up the skimmer box. Now, if you're looking at your skimmer box in your pool, you just wanna make sure there's usually a few screws on there. Just make sure that the water line is directly in the middle. If it dips too low, your pump can start sucking in air. And worse, your pump can run dry and then it overheats.
Matt Giovanisci:So you always want water going into the pump. You never want the pump to run dry. Right? Number 5 is you're gonna clean your skimmer baskets and your filter regularly. If water isn't flowing through the skimmer or the filter properly, your pump's gonna struggle.
Matt Giovanisci:So empty your skimmer basket at least once a week or more if you have a lot of trees around your pool, for instance, or a big big windstorm. And backwash or clean your filter when the pressure starts to creep up. Now, what does that mean? Well, after you backwash or after you've cleaned your filter, whichever type of filter that you have, you wanna make a note of what your pressure gauge says. That will be, assuming that the you know, assuming the water coming back into your pool is at at a good pressure, that means that's your normal running pressure.
Matt Giovanisci:Okay? It creeps up over time as more as there as your filter collects more debris. The more stuff in your filter, the higher the pressure, okay? Which is not necessarily a bad thing but there's a point at which it gets too much pressure and starts to slow down the flow. We usually recommend you backwash when you go £10 or 10 PSI, right, over normal running pressure.
Matt Giovanisci:So let's say, for example, that, I don't know, you're running your you just cleaned your filter, right? And and you're you turn your pump back on, everything's flowing really good, there's really good pressure coming out of your return jets. And you look at your pressure gauge and it says 12 psi. Make a note of that. Okay?
Matt Giovanisci:If it gets to 22 PSI, or I would say even up to 20 PSI, right, £8 over what it normally should be at 12, then you should either backwash or clean your filter. So if you backwash and you have a DE filter or sand filter, that's easy enough. If you have a cartridge filter, you wanna shut the whole thing off, remove the cartridges and clean them out. Replace it and that should bring your pressure back down to, hopefully, 12 PSI, in that case. Okay?
Matt Giovanisci:Number 6 is you wanna check your skimmer line because sometimes, you know, a pair of goggles or a hair scrunchie, if you remember those, if people still wear those, I'm sure they do, can get caught in the skimmer line blocking the flow of water to your pump. What am I saying? There's definitely still scrunchies, right? Yeah. I just thought that was a nineties thing.
Matt Giovanisci:Anyway, so what happens if you've gone through this checklist but your pump still isn't working? Alright. So, if the water flow is low in your pump but the pump itself is running, you probably just need to prime your pump. This can happen when air gets sucked in through the skimmer after you shut off the pump. Prime the pump by filling it with a garden hose for 2 to 3 minutes while the pump is turned off.
Matt Giovanisci:Then quickly reseal the pump lid and turn your system back on. You can also use the air relief valve on your filter to help remove air from the lines as your pump is starting. Now, if you think there's an air leak but you're not sure where it's coming from, you can use the shaving cream trick. Okay? So you you wanna spread a little shaving cream like the white thick foamy shaving cream on possible problem areas.
Matt Giovanisci:If there is an air leak, say at one of the unions or on the pump lid itself, the air will suck in and leave an indent in the shaving cream. Alright. Just a little trick and then you can just hose it off. Finally, if your pump isn't running and it's making a humming sound, it means there's something wrong with the motor. You can just try resetting the breaker and check your pump's impeller to see if it's jammed.
Matt Giovanisci:Just when you do that, make sure that the pump is off. And that's it. Alright. Remember, if you need more help with pool maintenance, grab our free pool care cheat sheet at swimu.com/cheat sheet. And if you found this episode helpful, subscribe for more pool maintenance temps temps More pool maintenance tips on your favorite podcasting app.
Matt Giovanisci:And when you do, please leave us a review. Let us know what you think and let more pool owners just like you find the show. That's it. Thanks again and happy swimming.