The arrival of spring is always a welcome time, especially after a long cold winter. Plants and animals begin waking, temps warm and daylight last longer, all good things.
Memorial day is the target time-frame for the "opening of the pool". Always an anxious time as the winter cover is pealed back to see what's awaiting underneath, and a time when I typically cross my fingers when the power switch is flipped to ON, hoping all's fine and the pump and filter come to life.
Fingers crossed during this years opening didn't help, nope. Flipped the ON switch, which sent power to the old Starbright pump, but instead of the familiar noise of the pump kicking in, we heard the noise of a pump that was stuck, unable to spin up, UGH.
Nothing that a couple solid wacks with a rubber mallet couldn't fix, at least in the sense that the pump was freed and spun up. Soon after it was pumping water into the filter and all was fine. However, the noise it was making was deafening!
Being able to run the pump in short times bought us enough time to locate a replacement, which was in itself an ordeal due to how old our Starbright was.
In the end we ended up replacing the pump motor only, NOT the whole pump. Taking this approach was terrific, not only was it cheaper but we also avoided needing to touch or mess with the PVC piping.
In the end, after half a days works, the new pump motor has been installed and working like a charm!!
Before -
After -
After -
Old Starbright pump motor, top -
Old Starbright pump motor, bottom -
We've been in the house for 19-years now. The pool and pump were installed years before our arrival, so we got our monies worth out of this dude.
The new pump runs much quieter, has much more power, both sucking and pushing, and is rated as energy efficient, so hoping for a savings on our electric bill.
Pools open, come on by for refreshing dip!
