How To Find Suction Side Air Leaks In Your Pool
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- čas přidán 5. 07. 2024
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Check out these tips on how to find suction side air leaks if your swimming pool system isn't working quite right or you have air bubbles.
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Great job Rob! I find the majority or air leaks are at the pump lid O-ring. It is either worn, placed on improperly or has debris around it keeping it from getting a good seal. That is the first thing I check. 👊
Best way I find to do the bubbles check is take a water bottle and take a sip. Then pour a bunch of dish soap and shake it. If you keep the bottle upright and squeeze it you get a nice stream of bubbles. When your low on bubbles just sake it up again.
Great tip!
Thanks for taking the trouble to get the good close-ups. Very helpful.
Thank you for the tips! This helped me identify a leak in the o-rings on one of my valves that was letting air into the system. Was an easy $10 fix for my system!
The sure way to find an air leak is to put the system under water pressure. Simply take a HydraFlush (for blowing obstructions out with water), attach it to a garden hose, and push water from the skimmer or the vac port toward the equipment. You do this with the system off. Wherever you see water leaking on your suction side, is exactly where your air leak is.
Wow, great idea!
This method is amazing! I have been trying to trouble shoot air bubbles for days. In 30 seconds i knew exactly where the suction side air leak was and fixed it!
excuse me for my ignorance. what is HyraFlush? googling it did not help. i like this concept and i want to try it but i need a right tool to connect garden hose to skimmer and vac port. thank you for sharing this idea.
@@steviewonder275 It’s also called a drain jet. It’s a garden hose attachment that is basically a bladder that blows up when the hose on. It forces water to only go one way.
Also called a drain bladder.
Thank you! The soap bubble trick worked!!
Thank You...great content for a difficult to diagnose problem.
Thank you! This was a great help towards finding and fixing my air leak!
I got a tip from a pool company as I had a leak on the suction side. I shut off the filter while watching the system - it causes a reaction where water leaks out. Sure enough one of my inlet valves spit a little water each time I shut off the pump. Replaced the o-rings and back in business.
hi i wanna ask...
so i got into a trouble when vacuuming my pool. i can only vacuum my swimming pool from only 1 point of the pool, and it is 10 meters length, so i can only reach 5 meters. (my pool has a clear polycarbonate roof, so only few percentage of sun penetrate and no leaves/debris )
my question is , with my semi indoor pool, do i need vacuuming? or brushing is already enough since there are no debris/leaves?
(i plan to brush the pool while swimming)(i think brushing is enough bcs after brushing, the algae/biofilm will be sucked by the filter and killed by the chlorine)
and in your video you said it's best to run the filter 12 hours a day. what is the best time pattern to run the filter? is it 6 hours on 6 hours off . or 2 hours on and 2 hours off.
Excellent. I just learned something about valves. I didn’t think to check! Update!!! Changing the gasket worked, my pump filter rose 3” near to the top. Awesome!!
Thanks, this really helped
Very helpful, Rob! Thank you.
You're welcome. Glad it helped.
Great tips, short, informative and to the point 👍 Other DIY-ers take notes!
Thanks! 👍
@@Inyopools I’ve tried all these methods and still have air in my return lines. Any other suggestions? Underground Lines have been pressure tested as well very weird. Thank you for your help.
My question is about patching leaks. I have patched a spot or two in my pump housing but I suspect there are others that I cannot see or get to because the pump is mounted up against a wall. What do you say to the idea of just spraying down the entire thing with Flex Seal in order to patch cracks in the housing?
Absolute genius advice. I just poured water over intake valve and bubbles disappeared. Really helpful. Thank you
Excellent!
Thanks👍
Can u use the bubble technique or shaving technique if the valve u suspect is coming from the valve on the return side?! It’s drilling water and not sure if it’s the coupler where the valve is attached or from the orings in the 3 way valve…
Thank you very much . Great job
Our pleasure!
Hello. Just saw your video...4 years late. 😂 I had a new filter system installed from a sand filter. 2 weeks after install I've got bubbles from the furthest (weakest) jet out in the pool. Installer says lid or o ring on pump are bad (bought all brand new to check and still have bubbles), or it's pipes between pool and pump/filter. How and what else can I check? No issues until after the new install, but pool is near 50 years old as well.
I have high psi, clean filter, low to no suction. I put a hose to the pump skimmer basket to the suction hole, I felt good pressure coming out of my skimmer hole by pool. I get build up of air in my filter, my skimmer lid gets blown up when turning off the pump. I have a frozen drain valve, it's cold right now, I haven't jumped in water i don't know if it's on or off. I had a slight air leak on a pipe by the skimmer pump basket, I tried sealing it, but it didn't work, though there is less air leak, but still same problems with low suction, I can't vacuum my pool.
Thanks very much. Impeller was clogged. Didn't think to look there.
That was a great demo for finding leaks. My question is did you have the screws loose for that purpose?
Yes, the screws were loosened to help demonstrate how soap bubbles would look if there was an air leak in the valve.
All is good with my pump until I hook up my automatic vacuum . It's fine for few minutes, then I get air bubbles in filter basket. Can you please help?
Does air being in system hurt anything?
My pool is just a few months old and it’s got bubble coming out the closest spout and the water is about a inch down in the pump basket
Thanks for the info. I tried these methods but still lose prime after an hour or so. If I backwash a little, I get the prime back. Could this be my filter element (de)?
Thanks Greg. What did you learn? Mine is doing the same thing now. Please advise....
Have a great day.
Same here, what was the answer
I did change the filter elements in my hayward DE filter. It's been working perfectly since
Nice video, some good tips, my question is, I do have some air bubbles through the return jets, but my bigger concern is that when the pump starts up in the morning, there is quite a bit of air that bubbles and gurgles from the return jets for about 30-45 seconds, I'm suspicious of a water leak somewhere in the system, Any ideas?
Thank you
Air leak post filter head. I found mine on both sides of my chlorinator.
@@kevinwilliams7949 What test did you do to find the air leak?
@@Artseventy6 I didn't do a test. I got bubbles from the return at every startup. Almost instant. I suspected. Pulled both thread fittings off and taped them with Blue Monster tape and drove them all the way in. The fittings are IPS scale and have a taper. But I think the filter head and the chlorinator bodies are just straight thread so you have to drive them in all the way. Haven't had any bubbles since.
@@kevinwilliams7949 Thanks, I'll take a closer look at mine.
Thanks for the tips! I saw one guy wrap the fitting in cellophane and it gets sucked in. My leak is in a fish pond suction.
We've not heard of the cellophane trick. I'd be worry of it getting sucked into the system and creating a whole mess of other problems.
Are the diverter valves o ring easy to replace ?
We have a guide on the topic. Take a look to see if it is something you feel comfortable with.
How To Replace Diverter Valve O-rings - www.inyopools.com/HowToPage/how-to-replace-diverter-valve-o-rings.aspx
Replaced the pump and now see some air in the basket. The new pump didn’t align 100%, needed to raise up the motor end of pump to lower the basket end to align with diverter in pipe. I did lube the o-ring at the fitting and used Teflon tape on fitting threads but it was not a easy connection. It did tighten but it was a fight. I took out pump basket lid and lubed o-ring but still have the issue. Could this be the cause of the air in the pump basket ?
It could be. But that is purely a guess. There are a lot of seams, gaskets, and o-rings on the suction side of a pump. So the only way to find the leak is to go looking for the leak.
If you have adjusted/corrected an area of plumbing and the issue persists, you need to move down the line and start troubleshooting elsewhere.
My filter wouldn't fully prime and lots of bubbles were in the return streams. I tried replacing & lubing the filter pod o ring and soaping up everything on the suction side looking for leaks, but nothing helped. Finally I tried cleaning out my (cartridge) filters and voila! back to a full prime.
Nice!
We just got a pool installed and did my first vacuum today and cleaned the skimmer basket and the pump basket.
I turned the inlet valve open to skimmer only while vacuuming and all was good until I went to clean the basket.
I forgot to shut off the valve and left the skimmer valve open, which drained the pump basket.
Upon starting the pump back up, I could not open the skimmer valve without having a large volume of bubbles.
If I opened only the main drain valve no bubbles were found. So I knew it had something to do with the skimmer inlet.
I even added a little more water to the pool thinking the skimmer was not getting enough water, yet it worked earlier??
Well along that thought, I partially opened the skimmer valve and checked the skimmer...the water level was very low!
Now for the lesson of the day learned...opened the weir door...TADA!
So if you know you don't have any leaks and you're still getting bubbles in your pump basket, be sure the weir door to the skimmer is opened!
This is a helpful video, I like the water method the best!
Thank you for the feedback. We're glad you figured it out. We've also heard of people using saran wrap around suspected areas.
Does an air leak on the suction side always result in bubbles in the pump pot? Thanks
Yes
I have a hayward pool filter my pressure it is more than 30 any solutions for my problem
I'd start with cleaning the filter. If the pressure doesn't drop, you may need to replace the filter media. This is assuming that the HP on your pump wasn't increased and that this is a newer problem.
@@Inyopools tks i cleaned the chlorinator with muratic acid and i was able to drop the pressure to 20
I found my air leak by running water on the pump shaft. The bubbles stopped right away! Thanks!
I fixed my pool vacuum leak with a backhoe.. filled the pool in with dirt..
AJK always needs more info., I’m seriously thinking about going this route. I felt your pain when I read this lol
Hmmm, I'll have to try that. My belt fed light machine gun didn't seem to help...
My air leak was in my spider valve gasket in my sand filter. The gasket was worn and bypassing. New one on order from Inyo Pools.
Thank you for shopping with Inyo. Usually, a bad spider gasket will cause a water leak because it's on the pressure side of the system.
@@Inyopools Correct as
well. I had water leaking from my backwash port.
How to locate leak in suction line under ground to the filter
my pump when the system turns off always empties itself back into the skimmer line
Make sure the Two drain plugs are tight on the bottom or sides of your pool pump. That made my pool have a lot of air bubbles. Simple fix.
Great tip!
You mean one of the two holes in the drain basket that is plugged with a screw in plug?
Guy walks into a bathroom... grabs the first 3 things he sees on the sink.. and says "i think ill make a leak detection video'.. xD
I'm really surprised rob you did not address the number one spot for a suction leak, the nipple or m i p fitting into the pump,
I definitely missed that in this take. We mention that in all our "how to" guides about suction side air leaks. This is what I get for doing it off the top of my head.
How do you fix an air leak suction side if it is in a fitting, like an elbow, or a butt connection?
The only permanent solution is to cut out that fitting and glue in a new piece.
If you have isolated the location of the leak, run the pump and have it suck quick drying glue (primer first and then glue). It will close small leaks (may need a few tries but usually quite effective). If that doesn't work or you have a significant area of leak especially around fittings, you will need to replace the fittings. In any case, try this method first.
@@carskum5217 Had a spa suction line fitting leaking water from glued joint, as fitting was below spa water level. I ran pump to stop leak and create vacuum on fitting and used clear primer and pvc glue daubed all around leaky joint. I did it twice and I let spa pump run for a half hour and stopped pump and leak was stopped. It has been five years and still holding up.
Afte ri backwash return ports shoot like crazy. Then 3 hour slater they are so weak looks like pool isn't running. Ready to fill pool with dirt
I tried all that still cant find leak
If you can't find the air leak using these methods, the next step would be pressure testing the lines. Here is a good video on pressure testing pool lines. czcams.com/video/sVp62kt_Nic/video.html
Replace O-ring? Or just tighten those 2 screws!
Pretty sure that was on purpose to show what an actual leak would look like.
So, the valves can have air leak in, but not have water leak out when the system isn't running? I guess so.
Correct. What happens after you stop drinking through a straw? The liquid goes back down to the cup. Why is that? The vacuum within the straw breaks when you stop drinking, then the air rushes in, purging the straw of liquid.
If the system is sealed except for one little spot, where will that air enter? Water can't leak through the same hole air is surging through.
Them screws loose player.
Thank ya, youngblood. We had them a bit loose to get the effect for the camera. But 'preciate ya.
Question for you. I don't have air in my pump, it seems like it is coming in after the filter. My pump is up hill from the pool. I am getting air coming out of my jets, but I am pretty sure it is not being drawn into the pump as there is no air in it or in my filter. I will try the methods you suggest, I am just confused why it isn't dripping on the pressurized side, but drawing air in.
With pump primed and running shut off and look at seal and pipes before pump ...water will drip instantly from leak for a few seconds. Hydroflush works well too.
Spray bottle with dawn in it will show up leaks close to pump or valves. air bubbles will go away long as soap is sprayed on leak for a short while.
I am losing water. It's not evaporation. Suggestions?
If you mark water level with a pencil at the same time each day you will find out where the leaks level is by the decrease in water level loss at that point. Usually around the skimmer plaster to plastic joint leaking by. Fix it with some pool putty.
The complexity of this setup is giving me anxiety. Holy cow there is a lot going on there..
Agreed. There's a lot that could go wrong with a setup like that, and trust us, a lot did, lol. Regarding pool plumbing, we prefer the "Keep It Simple" method.