Why is there air in my pump?

Dale Kreviazuk from UV Pools helps to diagnose some pump issues. We had a call from a customer here and they cannot prime the pump meaning they're turning it on and it is not pulling water through, there's a lot of air in here and it just won't start pulling water from the skimmer. The first thing we look at everything from from here back to the pool. The easiest stuff to check is the stuff above ground so we can start with the pipes. The pipes come out of the ground there you want to make sure that there's no apparent leaks right there that all the the joints are glued. Move along to the pump you want to make sure the valve is in good condition, inside this valve here this is a union, there's an o-ring in here. You want to check the o-ring, make sure it's not cracked or missing, you want to check this nut make sure it's tight. There are some glue joints, here's a threaded joint that may leak overtime and here's another union which means there will be another o-ring in here. The next thing you want to check is the pump lid, so if you take the lid off and you look on the under side of this lid you'll see that there's an o-ring, this one you see all those little cracks. All those cracks all the way around the lid will pull air into the pump. That means that the pump is trying to pull water but it's just sucking air so it won't fully prime. A couple other things you can check on the pump are the drain plugs, there's a plug right here it sheared off and missing that one's under vacuum, and then the one's beside it is under pressure.
UV Pools
4304 Henderson Hwy Narol, MB R1C 0A1
[phone]
www.uvpools.com/
We are located just outside the Winnipeg city limits.