Hayward pump keeps leaking

[bearcat]

Hi: I have owned an in ground pool for 20 years and have never had this problem.This year I had the seals replaced in my Hayward Super pump it only went 4 days and it began to leak,the seal were put in by a professional ,since then i have had over 4 more seal replaced and all began leaking after a few days.So I ask them if they new why it keeps leaking they can give me no reason,plus I ask pool installers and they couldn't help me ,they had no idea why it would be leaking.Just for the fun of it I had my water checked and it was fine,so i called Hayward Canada and explained to them what was happening and they had no idea. So I purchased a new pump thinking that something was wrong with the pump i had,I installed it and after 1 week it began to leak, Hayward replaced this pump and the replacement pump has started leaking after a week of work.I need some one's help as i can not figure out what is going on and I have not changed anything that i am doing for the past 20 years.Maybe some one has experienced the same problem .HELP!!!!!!! Note no cavation on the pump , no air in the lines, 10 psi on the filter,pumps runs very go other than the leak ,does not leak when pump is turn off.
Thanks R

[PoolDoc]

I've never encountered a problem like you describe. BUT, please complete the Pool Chart, and post here when you've done so. More info would help. I'll ask a couple of other people to take a look, once you've done so.

Pool Chart Entry Form

[bearcat]

I completed the form as requested , but I do not know how the post it.

Thanks
R

[PoolDoc]

You did it . . . and I've added the data synopsis to your signature.

The only thing that jumps out at me is the trichlor use. If you use trichlor via the skimmer AND have a timer with a long interval between pump cycles, you will 'hot shot' your pump and other gear each time the pump turns on. The reason is that, as the trichlor sits, the water in the skimmer becomes very high in chlorine and very low in pH.

But, I'll go ahead and ask some others to take a look.

[CarlD]

Normally, on most mechanical devices, when a gasket is leaking, especially a new gasket, it comes down to a series of possibilities. These are very general.
1) The gasket is installed so it's pinched and not exactly in place.
2) The gasket is installed upside down.
3) The gasket is supposed to use gasket cement and doesn't, or isn't supposed to use cement and does.
4) The gasket appears to be the right gasket but is, in fact, the wrong one.
5) The gasket mounting surface on the device is damaged.
6) One or both of the gasket mounting surfaces is warped (happens in engines all the time).
7) The mounting screws are under-torqued, over-torqued, or torqued in the wrong order.
8) There's a defective new gasket, or even a run of bad new gaskets.

The only other things that hit me is perhaps there's a back-pressure somewhere in the system,creating excessive pressure that causes the gaskets to fail, or, Ben's idea that the excessive chlorine in the pump breaks down the gasket.

I don't know if this helps.

Carl

[mas985]

Correct me if I am wrong but I read that the mechanical ceramic seal is failing and not any gasket or o-ring or did I misread the post.

If it is a ceramic seal, besides an incorrect installation, another possibility is that the motor shaft or impeller seat is slightly bent so the seal surfaces are not perfectly aligned. This would damage a seal in no time at all. Does the motor seem to vibrate more than it should?

[waste]

Welcome to The Forum!

I also thought about a bad shaft, but you say it's a whole new pump. (however, here we need to get a little more technical - was the pump housing that was replaced or the pump housing and motor?) If it's the original motor still, you may have a warped shaft. The other thing that comes to mind is that all the seal assemblies were installed backwards - if the original 'pro' installed it backwards, anyone who went to replace it would have put it in oriented the same way.

What would help us all clarify this issue is to see pictures of the seal assembly and seal plate, from next time you break the thing open to replace it.

While this is certainly a 'head scratcher', it is probably a quickly fixed issue, once we can figure out what's causing the problem. The more info we have, the sooner we'll be able to identify and help you correct this.

[bearcat]

HI Guys
Thank you for all your info I am going to check all those thing out,I had thought but the bent shaft but the new pumps I got were completely new, wet basket and all so that kind of ruled that out.What is Trichlor I use chlorine . The new pumps I got that leaked after 1 week were ru
n 24/7 ,so not shut down and restarts,could the vibration from the pump on the wood floor of the pumps house cause the blots to losen?what is the correct torque to bolt motor to the wet basket.
Thanks
R

[CarlD]

Tri-Chlor is the standard 3" tabs that people put in automatic chlorinators or floaters, sold in every pool store.

Tri-Chlor adds chlorine, but also adds acid and stabilizer to your water. Sometimes people put the tab in the skimmer, which CAN be a problem when the pump is off as the erosion continues and concentrates chlorine in the lines into the filter or in the filter itself. But I don't believe it is USUALLY a problem.