Pool Pump Replacement

We had a lot of rain over the past week ... over a foot of rain throughout Central Florida ...

It toasted my pool pump, I think ... I was out during one deluge and there was about a foot of water along the side of the house and the pump motor was partially submerged. We had had an irrigation well put in a month ago and apparently when the electrician back-filled the trench it wound up being a little bit higher than before. The result being that the watter was dammed up a bit more than previously.

In any case, the pump motor died ... I switched it on once the water had receded (after resetting all the circuit breakers). It ran for about 10 seconds and then stopped with a soft popping noise. Not good.

The old motor was an AO Smith UST1152, 1.5 HP. A replacement for the original Northstar pump, I think. I found a Marathon pump at the local Pinch-a-penny. Usually I'd buy something like this online, but, with a pool party coming up there was some urgency. The Marathon pump was $219, plus a couple seals.

This is the filter setup with the pump in the foreground.

I removed the cover from the end ... a couple 1/4" bolts (blue arrow) and 6 bolts holding the pump assembly (green arrows).

The electrical connections once the end cap was removed. This is a 240V system, so we have a ground wire (green arrow) and the red (L1) and black (L2) power lines.

Note the yellow arrow pointing to the motor shaft. The impeller is mounte4d on the other side of the motor and it unscrews from the shaft. You need to keep the shaft from rotating in order to unscrew it ... on somne motors there's a hex-head you can attach to ... here there's a slot for a flathead, which isn't all that convenient. It took awhile to get the impeller off.

The diffuser. This pops right off. There's an O-ring on the tip of the diffuser ...mine was looking a little worn,so I opted to replace it.

The impeller. This has spiraling channels that spin the water out through the diffuser. The impeller is where the little broken bits of children's toys will wind up if they make it past the basket filter.

There's a white plastic cuff on the impeller. Be sure to remember which way it goes on.

The pump housing has a ribbon gasket. I took this out, cleaned it up and smeared it with teflon lubricant.

So,

Remove the impeller.

Remove the seal from the shaft.

Remove the 4 bolts holding the impeller housing to the motor.

Attach the new motor.

Lubricate and replace the shaft seal.

Screw the impeller back on.

Put the white plastic cuff onto the impeller shaft.

Lubricate the O-ring and put it back onto the diffuser.

Put the diffuser on.

Bolt the new motor on and wire it up.

This is the new motor with power connected. The red and black wires going to the L1 and L2 connectors, respectively. The white arrow shows the location of the high/low voltage selector on the motor.

The innards of the pump and motor are shown in more detail at http://www.troubleshooters.com/pool/pump/index.htm. I found this page after I already had the new motor bolted on.

Anyway, good luck. Be aware that there is potentially deadly voltages in play here. If you're not comfortable with electrical wiring, contact a pool repair specialist.

Next up, why is my AquaLogic controller not functioning?

Fixing the Aqua Logic PS-4 Controller

As described here, I replaced my pool pump motor recently.

I'm getting a couple errors on the Aqua Rite console.

Getting a No Cell Power error.

Periodically I also see this. "No Cell Power" is what it displays when the cable from the front of the controller to the aquarite cell is disconnected. Only this error shows up intermittently.

The pump motor starts up when the circuit breaker is on, but the Filter on/filter off control doesn't actaully turn the pump on or off. The console says Filter Off, but the motor keeps running.

The valves work, the pool light works, and the remote control all work.

So, time to open it up. Turns out this is a common problem. The tutorial at http://wwwnocellpower.com was invaluable.

Turn off all breakers ... I have 3 breaker boxes between the pool control and the mains. I turned them all off.

Cover removed. The black control box attaches onto 4 plastic standoffs ... you can pull the control box straight out.

There's a little 4-wire plug running from the circuit board to the control box. It pulls right off. It's keyed so there's only one way to put it back ...