Behind the Pump Lid – Wet End Issues and Tips!

A pump that won’t prime, a lid that won’t budge, and a pad visit that’s suddenly running long, this is where small, practical know-how saves the day. We walk through the real-world pool pump fixes that most techs only learn after enough scraped knuckles and repeat trips, and we keep it focused on what actually works when you’re standing in front of the equipment.

We dig into stuck pump lids on common pumps, including why they tighten up, how a simple rubber mallet technique can help, and when it’s smarter to use a dedicated pump lid removal tool for Hayward-style lids. From there we zoom in on one of the biggest causes of mystery air bubbles and “it ran fine yesterday” complaints: the pump lid O-ring. We explain how worn, dry, pinched, or missing O-rings create suction leaks, why homeowners opening the pump can trigger priming failures, and why carrying spare O-rings is one of the best low-cost moves a pool service pro can make.

We also talk pump baskets, impeller clogs, and what that low filter pressure reading is really telling you. You’ll hear how to check for cracked baskets, how to clear debris from the impeller safely with basic tools, and why ultra heavy-duty baskets can backfire if they get fully packed with debris. Finally, we cover priming best practices, including using a bucket, avoiding dry starts, and how large air relief assemblies on certain pool filters can make priming faster and easier. If this helped, subscribe, share it with another pool pro, and leave a review with your best pump troubleshooting tip.

• Removing tight pump lids with a rubber mallet instead of sore hands
• Using pump lid removal tools for Hayward Super Pump and similar lids
• Inspecting, replacing, and lubing pump lid O-rings to prevent air leaks
• Spotting missing O-rings after homeowners open the pump
• Why oversized pump pots and giant baskets cause real-world clogs
• Checking for cracked baskets that let debris reach the impeller
• Clearing impeller jams safely with a flathead screwdriver
• Choosing OEM baskets vs heavy-duty baskets and the trade-offs
• Preventing pump basket cleanouts with leaf traps and skimmer socks
• Priming correctly after opening the pump and using air relief valves

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Transcript

Getting Stubborn Pump Lids Off

Lid Tools For Hayward Style Pumps

O-Rings That Cause Air And Leaks

The Rise And Fall Of Giant Pump Pots

Basket Cracks And Impeller Blockages

OEM Vs Heavy-Duty Pump Baskets

Stop Debris Before It Hits The Pump

Faster Priming With Air Relief Valves

More Help And Coaching Options

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Hey, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show. Whether you're starting out or you've been a pro for a while, you may find the information in here helpful. I'm going to talk to you about pool pumps and not just the things you hear about, but little things that you may not hear people talk about too much, and I'll cover some things that will really help you out there in the field when you're dealing with different pool pumps. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the pool guy coaching program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support from me. I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com. One thing that you'll realize right away when you're working out there is that a lot of times the lids of these pool pumps are hard to remove. It's not any kind of problem with the pump itself. The manufacturer, and of course it would be bad for a pool if the pump lid comes off really easily under pressure. And that is why a lot of times you have a lot of trouble getting the pool pump lid off of the pump. And sometimes it feels like it's actually not going to come off with any kind of force you're using. There are tools out there that help with certain pool pump lids, but I'll start with the whisper flow. This is one that gives a lot of pool probes problems, and they're on really tight sometimes. The simplest thing is to carry a rubber mallet, and then you can tap one of the corners while you're holding the other one, and it'll actually spin off pretty easily at that point. I wouldn't recommend hitting it with your palm over and over again to loosen them up. Yes, if it's one that's on there that will come off easily, hitting it with your palm will knock it off, but you're gonna just start getting sore hands out there, and it's one of those things where if you just carry a rubber mallet, you'll get these whisper flow lids off pretty easily. That rubber mallet would come in handy as well for the jandy pump lids. Sometimes these are really tight, especially the larger jandy pumps like the E pumps, those lids have a hard time coming off. So having the rubber mallet also helps. It protects you from protects your hands from being damaged by hitting it and try to get them off with your palms. If your surface area is dominated by Hayward, you may run into the super pump or the super two pump, and that has a kind of a hard lid to get off as well, but there is a tool they make for it. They also CMP also makes a tool for that too. But it's the SP3100T, and it's a plastic tool with a handle. You put it right over the lid of the haywood pump, and it'll you just twist it and it comes right off. So I definitely would recommend having the removal tool for the haywood pumps as well, and this will make your life a lot easier. Sometimes you know it's really impossible to get these lids off without a tool, and having one of these on your truck is really helpful. I mentioned the CMP. If you have some older pools that have the pumps with a similar lid to the Hayward pumps, this tool will fit perfectly on there as well. I've used this tool on the Hayward pumps, by the way, as well. It's the metal tool, and you can get this as well. It's the CMP 25300-100-000. And this is something that will help you get the pump lids off easily without having to use your hands all day to hit it. Now, a lot of times one of the reasons why the pump lid is tight is that the o-ring is wearing out on the pump lid, making it tighter than normal. It should be tight regardless, but this makes it a little bit tighter when the o-ring is worn out, not lubed up properly. So I would recommend changing and inspecting those O-rings whenever you can. Lube them up. I still like using magic lube on the O-rings. This seems to be very robust. Just hopefully you never drop the O-ring out of the pump lid and onto the dirt or something, because then you have a big mess on your hands with that magic lube all over it. But it does help a lot sealing the pump. A lot of times you're gonna find that the air that's in the pump, maybe some small air bubbles or larger ones, or a cavitation of the pump, is all due to the fact that the O-ring is just worn out or not looped properly. That's the only thing that's actually sealing the pump. I can't tell you the occasions where I have gotten to a pool and it's not priming, and I'm this happened to me like it should only happen once, but I think it happened like three times over the years to me, where I get to a pool, it's not priming, and I'm trying everything to prime this thing, but I didn't look at the O-ring or look for a missing O-ring, I should say. So on one occasion, I think the O-ring just broke off and I wasn't even paying attention to it when I cleaned it one time, and that was my fault. The other times is when customers go out there to clean the pump basket, which they should never do, but they want to do something, they're tinkering around the pool, they see some leaves in there, and they take the pump lid off. And this happened with the whisper flow pumps mainly, because that O-ring isn't really in there really good, and it fell off onto the ground. This happened in two occasions, and I wouldn't think the O-ring would be missing because I figured I'm the last one that cleaned the pump lid, and you know, cleaned the pump, I should say, and put the lid back on. But as the customer did that and the o-ring fell off, and the only reason I saw I realized is I saw the O-ring kind of off to the side a little bit behind by the motor, and I realized that when he took the pumplet off, the O-ring fell off and he didn't think anything of it. So it's really important to have an O-ring on there, of course, but have one that's operational. You'll find that the larger pumps, like the Jandy Stealth or the notorious Hayward North Star pump, which no one really likes, have these really thin O-rings on there that are just a pain. When they start to wear off, you you really can't get the pump lid back on. I mean, it's really hard to get it back on with the worn O-ring on one of these larger ones because it's a really thin, wide O-ring, and it's one of those things where you should have spares in your truck because once you take the pump lid off, you know, a Gandhi stealth or a Hayward North Star, and the O-ring is worn out, you're you're never going to get that pump lid back on, or it's gonna be extremely difficult. And thankfully, both the Hayward North Star and the Gandhi Stealth have been discontinued. The theory behind these large pump pots, and this was something that manufacturers are moving towards before the variable speed pumps came on the market, is basically they were kind of creating the same thing that the variable speed pump creates right now. We're working on a lower speed. The large area where the water would go into in these larger pumps would slow it down and make the pump run more efficiently. And this is what variable speed pumps do now, and that's why you don't really see these gigantic pump pots or wet ends on pumps anymore, which by the way are just a pain sometimes when you lose prime to fill them up. Even a bucket doesn't work, five-gallon bucket. Sometimes you just have to keep pouring water in, you know, get another load of water. Sometimes they're so huge. So you'll run into these on your pool browser. So just be aware that the you know the design of has gone away because of variable speed pumps, but the O-rings on top still are a pain, and sometimes you'll pinch these O-rings too when you're putting that lid on, and so just have extra ones, carry those on your truck so you can deal with these extra large pumps that have been discontinued, thankfully, but there's still a ton of them out there that were installed by builders and service techs thinking that these pumps were more efficient, less maintenance as well was the idea with a larger basket. You know, it could pick up more debris. However, if you have these on your route, you know that these this was not the right thinking of these pumps because what happens with these giant pump baskets is that all the debris still gets pulled towards the impeller at the bottom. And if you take these baskets out, you'll notice that yes, there's you can pick up a lot of leaves, but you'll notice that where the impeller is at is where all the debris is at and it's kind of shredded and pulled that way, and it kind of blocks the flow of the pump. I've been to I've been to many of these pumps before where they're just shaking and rattling, you know, they're they're they're making noises like and the whole pump is shaking. I'll take the lid off, I'll take the basket out, and I'll see that right where the impellers are at the bottom, in the pump basket itself, there's hair, there's like leaves and everything, and that little area causing the pump not to really run efficiently, and you have this gigantic basket that's empty, and just the little area in front of the impeller is clogged with debris. So they weren't effective, and it's one of those things that are kind of uh you know, thankfully ha has gone away. Speaking of pump baskets, these are something that you have to inspect, of course, to make sure they're not cracked, because if they're cracked, then debris will get into the impeller. And this will of course stop the water from flowing properly. If you get to a pool and you have some experience and the pressure gauge shows like five on there, and it should normally be at 20. More than likely there's something stuck in the impeller, so go ahead and turn the pump off, take out the basket. And what I do is I just use a flathead screwdriver and I spin the impeller with it, and I kind of pull a little bit to get any debris that's in there, and then you'll hear a gurgling noise, and that that indicates that whatever was jammed in there is out of there now. Then sometimes you'll have to take the motor off the back and clear the impeller, but usually it's just spinning it with the screwdriver. Some people use like a coat hanger, whatever you you have in your arsenal. I think they have a special tool they make for that as well. But I find a flathead screwdriver works perfectly fine. I wouldn't recommend sticking your finger in there, not for any danger of the pump turning on you if you turned it off and you make sure it's off, but you can scrape your knuckles on the on the little opening of the hole before the impeller. So don't stick your hand in there, just use a tool to do that, and that'll save you from getting cut and your hand, your knuckles getting kind of bruised up there. And also the basket itself is something to consider when you're replacing it. I like using the OEM baskets. Now Valpack does make some heavy-duty baskets for the Pinter Intelliflow and Whisperflow. And I went through a period of time where I was using these baskets at my service accounts, but the only problem with these robust baskets is the fact that they were robust. And so what I mean by that, if you got a basket that for some reason the skimmer, let's say the skimmer basket turned over or the skimmer basket had a crack in it, when you had one of these valve pack baskets in there, they would fill up with debris, and since they're like indestructible, they would fill up completely with debris, and this would cause the pump again to vibrate, like I mentioned earlier. You would you get back there and you're having the pump literally vibrating off the the base, you know, the vroom vroom vroom, and it's shaking like crazy because the pump basket was so impacted with debris. Now, if you had a standard whistle fill basket in there, eventually that basket would crack and the debris would go past through into the filter. So there are things to consider when you're getting one of these really durable valve pack baskets. You know, you want to make sure that the pump basket never gets filled up, first of all, with debris, and you want to make sure that you check this often because that is a drawback with these baskets. They are indestructible and they do get compacted with debris sometimes, but I like them for the fact that they're long-lasting, but I still just use the OEM baskets everywhere now. If the whisper flow basket has a tear in it, I'll just use the standard whisperflow basket, and same with the other baskets. I don't like using the heavy-duty baskets anymore for that reason. Speaking of pump baskets and cleaning them, I really think the best way to operate your route is in a fashion where you rarely, if ever, have to open up the pump basket to clean it to begin with. This means if you have a suction cleaner using a canister that has a mesh bag, like the Pentair Leaf Trap or the Hayward 530, and that way no debris gets in there from the suction cleaner. And then in the skimmer, you would want to use a filter sock or skimmer sock or filter saver, and this is kind of like a mesh that goes into the skimmer basket that prevents really small debris from passing through into the pump. If you go to my website, swimmingprolearning.com, and scroll down to the bottom of the webpage, there's pool guy gear, and it's not something that you wear, of course, but it's something that I wanted to make available. Just click that link and then you'll see the filter saver or skimmer sock link. And I would recommend picking these up on Amazon. You can get 20 of them for right now$16. I'm on the on the site right now, and they have almost 20,000 reviews. I mean, this is a product that is very used out there by a lot of people. Put this in the skimmer basket, put a rock in there and to hold it down, and you'll never really have to clean a pump basket again, open it up and do anything with it, because I I find that it's time consuming and it's unnecessary if nothing gets into the pump to clean that basket out and open it up. Now, one thing that when you do take the lid off and open it, you do have to reprime the pool. Now, one thing I like about the Pentair filters, the FNS Plus and the Clean and Clear filters, is they have that large pressure gauge on top, the air bleed relief assembly. Aquastar has that as well. And a few other ones have that air relief air bleeder that's really big, it's black and it's got like a half an inch opening, versus like the pinhole air bleeder or air relief on other filters. What's nice about these air relief valves on top is that if you do take the pump lid off and need to prime it, normally I get a I have a five-gallon bucket and I'll go to the pool and scoop some water out and pour it in there, put the lid on, and then turn on the pool. But the nice thing about these air relief valves is that you can actually open them up with the pump lid off, and water will actually come back out of the filter when you open up these air bleeders, the larger ones, and fill up the pump basket. Then you put the lid on and close it and turn on the pump and prime it up pretty quickly. You can also put these on the stay right system 3 filters. You can retrofit them with the Panthera air bleed assembly, and it's definitely something to consider. Not every pool, not every filter can is can fit these air relief valves, but they do help in priming the pool up very easily. But regardless of using that, you have to use a bucket and you have to fill up the pump with water every time you empty it. You really can't dry start these pumps. Now, back in the day when I started, there was a lot of brass pumps. The nice thing about the brass pumps is you never had to really prime them, you just empty out the pump basket, which by the way was minuscule. The pump basket was like a coffee cup size basket, it was really ridiculous. But the nice thing is you just put the lid on and the brass pump would prime up. But with the modern pumps, you have to actually fill up the wet end or pump pot with water, put the lid on, and then that will help prime the pool. You it's really hard for the pool to prime and restart once you take that pump lid off. If you don't put water back in the pump basket, unless there's a check valve in front of the pump, usually there isn't. You'd have a hard time priming it because you there's too much air in there for it to pull and get its prime. So every time you empty a pump basket, fill it up with water. It's just the rule and the way things work out there. And if you don't fill it up with water, chances are that pump won't prime, and it's just gonna run and suck air pretty much all day or until you take that lid off again and put water in there physically to prime it up. I don't use a garden hose because that's too slow and it's not something that I would recommend. Just get a five-gallon bucket and pour it in there and put the lid on as quickly as you can, and then turn the pump on right away, and you should have no problem priming that up. If you're looking for other podcasts, you can find those by going to my website, swimmingpoollearning.com. On the banner, click on the podcast icon. There'll be a drop-down menu with over 1900 podcasts for you there. And if you're interested in the coaching program that I offer, you can learn more at PoolGuyCoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have you rest of your week and God bless.