Tips & Tricks

Have you ever walked out to your pool equipment and it’s not running, the only thing you hear is the pool pump humming. Well there are three things that might have happened , one there is something stuck in the impeller ,two the capacitor has gone bad, or lastly the motor has gone out all together. The first one on the list is pretty easy to fix and you don’t need much knowledge. First turn the power off the the swimming pool equipment,then remove the lid off the pump,remove the pump basket, inspect the basket , does it have any holes or breaks? If so replace it,next take a small screwdriver and put it in the suction hole located at the bottom of the pump pot ,where you removed the basket. It will go back to the face of the impeller, feel around to see if there is any debree ,such as leaves twigs etc, you might even put the water hose in to wash away debree if you felt some in there,next go to the back of the pool pump motor,there you will find the bearing cap,it should have a cap on it ,take a small flatt head screw driver and pry it off .You will be able to see the end of the motor shaft,take a wrench or cresent wrench and turn it ,clock wise then counter clock wise ,if at first it is very hard ,after you have turned it back and forth it will free up.stand back and with everything away from the pump turn the power on for a second .If you hear it running again, your done ,put the basket bearing cap and pump lid back on.Ok if the pump motor still humms and doesn’t run turn the power back off,on the top of the motor you should see a small hump about  (more…)

When you walk out to do your weekly check on the swimming pool and you notice that the water seems to be cloudy, there are two areas to look at ,the chemical levels are out of balalance ,or the filtration needs attention.First thing I would check is that the free  chlorine levels are above 1.5 and the combined chlorine levels are not much higher ,then I would put my attention towards the p.h levels. Most home owners don’t know that when the p.h gets above 7.6 most of the free chlorine in the pool is turned off. The higher the p.h the less effective the chlorine is. By lowering the p.h you can make the chlorine in the pool more effective. On a gunite swimming pool almost anything can raise the p.h , rain,adding some kinds of shock, filling the pool with tap water etc, so it is very important to not only check the chlorine levels every week but keep a close eye on the p.h levels. OK so I adjusted the p.h and the pool still is not crystal clear , the next thing I would check is the filters. Turn the pool pump off and remove the filters from there tank ,check to see if they are torn or dirty, soak them in a trash can or container with degreaser for about 1 to 2 hours ,then give them a good rinse , reinstall them back in the filter tank. if you have d.e filters after you turn the pool pump back on add 8 one pound coffee cans of d.e back to the skimmer.One note if you have allot of very small debree in the pool it would be a good idea to add some clarifier to the pool, the will act like a bonding agent and stick all the small particle together so that the filter can easily filter them out of the pool. Well you have the chemicals balanced ,the filter cleaned, the next thing I would check is the circulation of the pool ,with the pump running you should be able to see the jets in the side of the pool shooting out ,and you should see the water at the top of the pool circulating in a clock wise rotation,make sure that the jets are turned slightly up and to the left .Your swimming pool is like your toilet in that the water at the top moves in a clock wise rotation, in the pool this make everything at the bottom vortex towards the drains in the bottom of the pool. Well I hope this has helped ,this is one of the most frequent service calls we get .