Pump loud, leaking, or not priming? Let's find out why.

Pump loud, leaking, or not priming? Let's find out why.

A pool pump tells you what's wrong if you listen. A high whine with a spitting return is air on the suction side — a lid o-ring that's dried out in the sun, a cracked skimmer weir, a low water level after a Santa Ana week, or a union that's loosened. A grinding rumble is bearings. A steady drip from under the wet end is the shaft seal, and on a hard-water pool that seal goes early because the calcium scores it. Water pouring out is a cracked housing, which happens on the rare North County night that freezes.

We check all of it in order. Water level and skimmer first, because it's free. Then the basket, the lid, and the o-ring, with a lube and a re-seat. Then the suction-side plumbing for a leak we can find by ear or with the pump under vacuum. Then the pump itself: prime time, pressure at the filter, amp draw against the nameplate, the sound and heat of the motor, and where exactly the water is coming from if it's leaking. On a variable-speed pump we pull the fault log and confirm the programmed speeds are actually enough to move water through your filter and heater; a lot of "won't prime" complaints on VS pumps are a schedule set too low for the plumbing run.

You get it in writing: the cause, whether it's a maintenance fix (o-ring, basket, air leak, schedule) that we've already done, or something that needs a C-53, and how urgent it is. A pump that's cavitating on air will cook its own seal in a few weeks, so we'll tell you when it can't wait.

If it needs more than a diagnosis

Work that needs a C-53 goes to our referral partner: Pool-Clinic Inc., a licensed C-53 swimming pool contractor, CSLB #1122305. You contract with them directly and pay them directly. We take nothing. Our write-up goes with you, so you know exactly what you're being quoted for.