Use a strap wrench or large slip joint pliers to get more leverage. It comes off counterclockwise like an ordinary screw. Just be careful not to damage it. You could probably insert 2 small screwdrivers into the flutes if you don't have a large enough pair of pliers if someone else holds the motor while you turn them. It's rare that we come across ones that don't come off by hand but everyone has a different grip... I'm always the guy asked to loosen a jar lid so probably a bad reference.

Glad it worked out, that's what pause is for on youtube :) We change over 100 motors a pool season on average now, nothing lasts like it used to.

Cleaning out the burner tray and vacuuming out the top of the heater should fix the overheating but you'll need to buy a new rollout sensor (fusible link), there is no "reset", once it's burned like a fuse it needs to be replaced.

Maybe the 60% LED is burned out? Seems odd it'd skip that, is it illuminated when you put it to 80% or is the 60% LED still off? As an interim solution you could set it to 40% (or 80%) and vary the pump run time to get the same amount of sanitizer production.

Generally yes but I would test the water with salt strips or better yet a meter. Most pool stores have the gear to test your water there if you take in a sample. By doing this you know how much to add and if the sensor is reading incorrectly you won't oversalt your pool.

Which light is blinking green? If it's the top one that just means your salt level is high, doesn't mean the cell is bad.

@@BobsPoolService It is the STATUS of the CELL that is blinking which says INSPECT - even though my salt level is GOOD (green) and my test strips all say the levels are good.. But it always says CHLORINE is LOW - but I was told that I should IGNORE that on the test strip and only go by my PENTAIR machine when it says LOW SALT then I add SALT. I also have the Sanitizer on 40 percent.. This sucks because I tried to reset the system by unplugging and it stayed solid GREEN for like a few minutes then went right back to blinking GREEN again for the STATUS of the CELL.

@@lauratesta316 If the inspect cell light is blinking green then there's a problem. Have you opened up the unions and inspected the cell? Sometimes debris gets lodged between the plates and causes this or you could have buildup on the plates themselves. The cell should be acid cleaned every 6 months to remove any scale that may have formed on the electrode. if none of this helps I'd contact Pentair if the cell is under a year old it should be under warranty.

If you have 220v both power leads are the same, just connect them to L1 and L2.

Thanks for the kind words, after I watched the video I did realize I should have mentioned changing out the diffuser gasket, in this case it was ok but oftentimes why not change it since you're in there. Great observation! We really didn't set out to make a video, this was an actual service call and we had a little extra time that day so I pulled out my phone and had my helper who has zero experience fixing pool pumps do the work so I would be able to narrate and instruct him. As for your pump plugs not staying in, tell us about it... it's really unfortunate Hayward hasn't addressed this, used to never be an issue but over the past few years nearly every pump we winterize has this problem and telling someone they need a new housing because of something as trivial as a drain plug seems ridiculous. Hayward filters also have this issue with the drains where even a new cap can leak. As for a fix, you can do what we do and get a deeper plug that's 1/4 NPT and not use the one with the washer. If you're lucky it'll go in a bit deeper and grab some better threads, just be careful not to put on too much teflon or it can crack the housing (the front, not usually the side one) Another way is to get a 1/4" stainless steel nipple and a draincock (valve), this way you won't have to keep taking it out every winter, you could even glue it in with plumbers goop if you wanted, in fact on my own pump I just glued a plug in (don't use teflon if you do that) and since I only have to remove the water once in the winter it's not a big deal. I just vacuum it out or use a sham-wow to soak it up. For the rear plenum you can loosen the bolts or what I do is just pour in half a gallon of non toxic antifreeze in the front portion and let it mix with the water in the back. Hope this helps, there's a lot of pool stuff that's just poorly designed, don't even get me going about Hayward Chlorinators and that lid o-ring design :)

@@BobsPoolService Bob - thanks again for taking the time to write such a great reply. Do you do service calls to somerset county? LOL. Yeah - for my Hayward sand filter, I had a similar issue last 3 years where the plastic drain spout chipped and now the cap will still leak no matter how tight. If others have this issue, what I've done is used silicone earplugs to shove in the filter holes when I open and then the cap seals with no leak. At closing, just remove the silicone - easy. I wonder if that would work for the drain plug? Thanks for the other few tips on the drain plugs. And, I have the Chlorinator too. What a pain although I don't use it much as I pretty much switched to liquid 10+ years ago that I manually dose once a day so rarely fussing with it.

@@MarcL-sj7qi Hey Mark, we do have some clients in Somerset, it's not our main area but if you need something just mention to my biz partner Walter who answers the phone that you spoke to me on youtube. As far as the chips on the filter stem drain it's oftentimes animals that chew on it, maybe they're looking for water or maybe they just like to chew? Squirrels seem to do this with fence latches and pump handles too. Good move on switching to liquid chlorine, we see more pools damaged by tablets than anything else. if you ever do use them really test the water often and adjust the pH, it'll always be low as you use tablets because they're half acid. You maintain your pool the same way as I do my hot tub with just liquid chlorine (bleach). If you can get some old style drain plugs without the flange and washer they're a little longer and might help you seal your pump or as you said silicone... you can always just put non toxic antifreeze in there over the winter as well if you seal it off. I saw some stainless steel plugs on amazon I'm tempted to order and try out, once upon a time pumps came with brass or bronze plugs that lasted 30 years. It's really sad what's happened to the quality of pool equipment across the board for the most part. We used to change out filters that were 20 years old, then it went to 10, then 5 and now we see cycles of 3-4 years for this stuff. Pump motors went from using copper windings to using aluminum in some cases and the bearings are the big culprit, they used to use quality usa made ones but now who knows what's in there. I have pumps from the early 80's we use to pump out pools and they're still as quiet as when I bought them.

@@BobsPoolService Thanks again! Will do on the service. I know what you mean on the quality. My original superpump motor from 2006 lasted 10+ years. These Century replacements now go 2-4 years. Really is terrible. It was ages since I used the chlorinator. With the pump out of action, I ran to home depot to get some pucks. $50 for 5lbs - geez these things have gotten to be a lot. I used them to float in the pool to keep up some levels of constant chlorine, and when the pump was back working after watching your training vid, I transferred them to the chlorinator, which hadn't been used in years. I switched to liquid (BBB method) over 15 years ago after having way too much CYA in the pool which caused major issues with chlorine not being effective. Got myself a good test kit and now test the chlorine each night and just add liquid once a day. For those near an Ocean State Job Lot, they carry 12.5% liquid at a great price. I'll have to look for those stainless plugs - maybe worth a shot!

@@MarcL-sj7qi BBB is the best, I can tell you know your pool stuff well! If you want a better chlorinator check out the Pentair 320, it used to be called the Rainbow but was bought out. I still prefer to avoid tablets but sometimes if you're away for a week it's nice to have. Unlike the Hayward the 320 is also full flow and the tablets aren't stewing in water when you turn off the system.

You probably need to change the sensor, it's connected to the flow sensor and they sell a kit with wire connectors. It should not be red unless you're under 2700ppm. Is your water cold? if it is that could also cause this. There's a temp sensor built into the flow switch that may have gone bad.

@@BobsPoolService thanks for the advice. Probably need to change the sensor since the water isn’t cold, all other lights are green as expected and my water tested at salt levels of 3400ppm

The part you're talking about is known as the heat exchanger and it can definitely be taken out, cleaned, reamed, etc. Sometimes we see calcium buildup and have to clean out the tubes, there's a tool for that you can hook to a drill. As for the outside of the tubes with the fins take that out and watch with water, do not brush it dry because it can ignite!

If pushing the less button doesn't reduce the setting then the switch has probably gone bad, really try pushing it firmly, even move your finger around as you do. If this doesn't work then you'll need to replace the cell, the only part on the cell that can be changed out is the flow sensor, everything else is sealed and potted in a compound.

Yeah, it's not obvious how to hold the shaft unless someone shows you. Glad it helped.

@@BobsPoolService That was incredibly helpful. I searched videos for just that reason and after watching yours I learned a couple helpful tips on removing the ceramic seal/bushings. So helpful! The new motor is running great and so quiet. Thank you again.

So adding bleach will not increase your CYA (cyanuric acid). It's known as an unstabilized chlorine. Trichlor tablets increase your CYA and yes, a high level of CYA can be problematic but not in the way you described. If your CYA is too high your chlorine will still read just as it always has HOWEVER the high CYA will make the chlorine ineffective unless the level is very high (not good). If you're only adding bleach to your tub as I do I can't figure out why your CYA would be high like that. CYA has one job and that is to protect your chlorine from UV degradation, but unless your spa is out uncovered in sunlight for many hours a day CYA isn't something you need at all in your spa water. I would make sure your test strips are working correctly and that the bleach your adding is pure bleach with nothing else added. I've never in all my years seen bleach with cyanuric acid. I have seen stabilizer sold in liquid form, in fact I just put 2 gallons of that in a swimming pool today to bring up the CYA. I'm guessing somehow you got a bottle of that and not bleach (sodium hypochlorite is the active ingredient) and have been putting that into your tub instead. Hope this helps!

If other lights are on I'd say it's gone bad or if it's in warranty you should file a claim. If NONE of the lights are illuminated check the connector, at the power center, also check the fuse inside the power center which is a very common thing we replace.

@@BobsPoolService Its crazy this one is new and the one I replaced does the same thing I can’t find a good pool guy in my area and Pentair is worth less Thanks

Definitely do NOT vacuum into an uncharged DE filter in fact you shouldn't even run your system without DE in there for any period of time. What can happen if you run water through your DE filter without DE is the dirt gets impregnated into the filter grid rather than being caught by the DE. At best you take int apart and clean it, maybe do an acid washing and you're back up but at worst you could ruin the grids and need a new filter by running it without DE. Sort of like driving your car without oil, really not good. I am planning on making and uploading more videos covering DE filters soon as we have a moment to catch a breath with our business :)

When the lights are all flashing like that it's doing a self check, sort of a boot up phase. Once it's on though for 10 minutes or more that should settle in and stop, if not something could be wrong.

Absolutely, it's just there to catch large debris so you can't clog up a pipe and you don't have to open the pump to empty the strainer basket. I can't begin to tell you how many things we've found clogging pipes, kids toys, underwear, acorn, once a plastic wine glass that was clear so it probably wasn't seen. By all means if you only have light dirt put the hose in directly, just be careful to keep your fingers away from the suction port.

Kevin retired and is living the good life but we have Pat, Sean, Walt and Joey along with myself the Bob of Bob's Pool Service. We really don't do pool vacuumings, we do repairs, liner changes and bigger contracting jobs but I saw an opportunity to make a video after watching some confusing ones on the internet. It's always good to know how to manually vacuum your pool but honestly I'd consider an automatic vacuum to make your life easier. One tip though, just don't run it ALL the time, I've seen people leave them in pools whenever they're not swimming so it's always spotless however even though they have rubber and soft cork the constant 24 hours of abrasion eventually takes it's toll on the liner wearing off the print wherever there's angles. Thanks for the comment and enjoy your pool! Hopefully I'll get some more videos on the channel for common pool tasks this season.

I would push it onto the seal plate (the part attached to the motor in my thumnbnail) and then carefully push the entire assembly into the pump housing. There's grooves and the diffuser should say "top" on it, you want top to be up. It's really not possible to put it in the wrong side up, it simply won't fit into the slots on the seal plate. Don't forge there's also a gasket on the front of the diffuser, you may need to replace it oftentimes they are in bad shape especially if you use tablets.

How much salt you lose over the winter all depends on the type of cover you have and amount of rainfall. If you have a solid cover that doesn't let any rain through and you keep it pumped off so rainwater never accumulates on the top (and displaces pool water) you will lose no salt over the winter unless your pool has a leak. On the other hand if you have a mesh cover or even a solid cover and allow water to accumulate on top displacing the pool water over the winter you will lose salinity. Also make sure you run your system for a full 48 hours before testing the salinity, what tends to happen is rainwater is less dense than salt water and will just sit on the stop stratified, if you take a sample you'll find it reads extremely low. Once the system runs and homogenizes the water you'll get an accurate reading. For pools here in New Jersey with mesh covers I'm finding almost all of them are opening with about 2200ppm of salt necessitating adding another 1200ppm, for most pools that's about 8 bags of salt. As for the lights they are a warning that it's too low for the system to operate but it behooves you to take a test and actually measure the salinity before calculating and adding salt to the pool. Hope this helps.

The motor style is a 56J, you'll need to get the right horsepower though, it should be on the tag. If you can't read it then you can check the impeller, 2605C is 3/4HP, 2607C is 1hp and 2610C is 1.5hp, 2615 would be 2hp. The seal is a PS-201 or PS-201V (for salt water, the V stands for viton) I always put in the Viton seals when I change them out. You don't need to get a Hayward branded motor, in fact Hayward doesn't make the motors. AO smith, century, emerson or any other will work so long as it's a 56J frame threaded shaft.

Ok thank you what about if it says the flange is round or square does that matter any because my pump is the sp2607x10 hayward 1hp motor but it looks just like the video?

In that case I'd grab the impeller with a strap wrench or large pair of slip joint pliers to free it. 95% of the time they come right off by hand as we showed in the video but every so often, especially if the water chemistry was too acidic or the pump is just old they can be stubborn. At worst you'll break the impeller but at least you'll be able to get off the other parts you'll need and just buy a replacement impeller.

Those are Praher 1.5" unions. Newer super pumps are now all 2" and we've switched to Praher high temperature unions ( black nut) so if the pump gets hot they won't leak. The part number is 200-906 for the 2" and 150-906 for the 1.5" size. Hope this helps.

Yes, when the salt level is back to normal the red light will go out and then the green LED (top most one) will illuminate green. I would however check your salt level with a meter or strips, calculate what you need then add it to the pool over just adding salt until the light turns green. The danger of doing the latter is if the salinity sensor in the unit goes bad or loses it's accuracy you could wind up putting way too much salt into your pool. I saw a customer once that had 12,000ppm of salt, they just kept adding it expecting the light to come on green and the cell was fault, it never did and on top of that they added so much salt to the pool we had to do partial water replacements to get it back down to 3400ppm.

Thank you so much for your quick response. And thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, it’s extremely helpful.

Glad to be of help. By far this is the most popular pump/motor we see on our routes.

We use a pair of very large slip joint pliers (or a strap wrench) to grab the impeller if it's seized on like that. I've yet to have one that wouldn't come off but oftentimes the impeller does break in the process of removing it. Is the impeller just stuck or is the actual motor seized? A "stuck" impeller to the shaft wouldn't cause the motor not to rotate or smoke but a bad bearing causing a seized motor would. if the pump is over 10 years old and it's really stuck that bad you may want to opt to just change out the entire pump (or try using a pipe wrench or large slip joint pliers to persuade it to come off)

Thank you! I used a pipe wrench after submitting my question, and it worked!

If wired properly the generator should shut off with the pump. If you wanted to turn it off and run the pump you could unplug the power connector. It's designed to not need to ever be turned off, you can regulate the output down to as low as 2%.

No, but I have noticed they need to be pushed quite hard. We're not the manufacturer but that is something I'll pass on since you're not the first person to say that.

This is a very good question and I share in your pain having extremely hard water myself. There really is no way to remove calcium from the water but you can use chemicals to keep it in suspension so you don't get scaling. I used to use anti scaling chemicals but now since I drain the spa monthly I do something else. Before draining, I remove the paper filter (so it doesn't get ruined) and add about 4 oz of muriatic acid to lower the pH. I run the system this way for about 12 hours, basically overnight. What this does is removes and scale from the tub walls and heater element and you'll see it flaking off into the water. I then drain this water wash out the calcium and refill. You don't want to have low pH for too long as it's damaging to the heater, pipes and vinyl but brief exposure hasn't caused me any issues. I only do this twice a year so about every 6 water changes provided I'm doing them monthly. As for emptying once a month it really depends on how many people are using the tub. If you're only going in a couple times a week by yourself then you can likely wait 2 even 3 months to change the water. If I find my water has any smell I right for a water change though, in my area water is fairly inexpensive.

You don't need to run the bubbles, just let the filter circulate the water. You'll find using the bubbler will cool down the water very quickly so I only run mine when I'm in the tub and even then use it more without the bubblers on. if you need to cool your tub down though the bubblers is a good way to accomplish that.

@@BobsPoolService Thank you for all the input. I added some regular bleach to our hot tub based on the pool calculator and now I have a ton of foamy suds on the top. Do you have any insight? We’ve been really careful to shower before getting in as well as only using bathing suits dedicated to the hot tub and not washed and laundry detergent. The foaming happened immediately after I added my bleach.

@@bh4396 Did you possibly use a scented bleach or one with a fabric softener built in? There's also "low splash" bleaches that may have something else in them. Pure bleach, sodium hypochlorite should not cause suds but things such as algaecides can do that. It is possible the bleach reacted with something else in the water but in my 35 years of pools I've not seen bleach cause sudsing, I have seen it react with copper and cause a green cloud. Bleach is simply chlorine, the same base ingredient used in all kinds of chlorine products sold for pools and hot tubs but again, some mfg's may put in other additives and scents.

@@BobsPoolService apparently I got Clorox for HE machines! I was doing some research online and saw on a forum others lamenting over this as well LOL. I can’t believe how difficult it is to find just regular bleach! I just ordered some regular Clorox pool chlorine tablets after all.

@@BobsPoolService next question! Is free chlorine important? I’ve been going off total chlorine which is fine in between 3-5 ppm but not the free chlorine

Sounds like a lot of different things going on. I have seen a small percentage of flow sensors go bad prematurely. I can't speculate but hopefully the new sensor was installed correctly, it's a bit of a finicky process and pentair changed the design so not all sensors are universal now, I'm guessing because they wanted to put a stop to 3rd party knockoffs (which actually worked fine). I would test your salinity with a meter, don't trust what the cell says and go from there. Your flow light shouldn't be off, it should be green or red, if it's red I'd surmise the flow sensor still isn't working. As for the hours of usage 2200 would be very low, they're rated for 10,000.

You have to test the pool water and adjust accordingly. Also establish a consistent pump run time. If you increase your pump from 10 to 20 hours you're going to be producing 2x the sanitizer. I usually start ours at 40 - 60 percent then check the water in 2 days, if the chlorine is too high, I reduce the setting, too low and I increase it. There is no intelligence on the cells or monitoring of your water so you need to test it.

Indeed, our house has gas, scary stuff but to convert everything to electric would be super expensive plus our kw/h rate is extremely high. But I have to agree here.

@@BobsPoolService Electric ceramic cooktops are the safest and are not that big of an energy hog unless you run a restaurant and cook all day long. We're on off grid solar and have all electric kitchen. Our heat is oil furnace and so is the hot water. Safest system around.

@@basspig Agreed on cooktops, I meant for heating the house. Most here have gas furnaces and using electric for heat is far more expensive in our area. My house has oil actually, also expensive but probably safer.

@@BobsPoolService oil heat is very safe if you have an old style cast iron furnace. I've maintained my for 58 years and no safety issues.

@@basspig Yes, my house was built in 1956, the furnace was replaced but it's still fairly old. Only issue I ever had was one of my thermostats went bad but the furnace has had zero issues.

gas leak

A man killed in a house explosion in South River Thursday evening was identified as a retired Newark police officer. Police say 62-year-old Kevin Gilbert died in the explosion. Another man is in critical condition following the incident on Continental Court.

@@59seank wow that is so sad. Thankyou for that.

Yes, very sad news.

I don't think that'd work out well at all for a few reasons, first there's not a lot of room down there for a fire, second the insulation on the inside would probably catch fire if it got too hot. In addition the soot from the smoke would choke out the heat exchange in short order, even a yellow flame with gas can soot it up so imagine a real wood fire! Lastly you'd have no safety or control, I would highly advise against lighting a wood fire inside your natural gad or propane heater. Another pool company and myself actually once built a firepit with copper coils around it and a metal conductor plate to heat the pool from a wood fire but after learning how it could potentially explode and burn guests we abandoned the idea.