Way back over a decade ago (2013), I installed a Waterco Multicyclone Filter on my pool <link>, and it worked pretty well. Then in 2015 I had a problem when one of the fittings broke, <link> which was annoying because nothing else broke when my pool flooded during a downpour. Well, it happened again and was a little bit exciting at the time.
I was sitting on the patio enjoying a fine sunny day (103F) over a cup of coffee when I noticed the pool level had dropped. A little bit concerned, I checked to see if the autofill was working; it was. So I went to the equipment, and the area was flooded, and water was shooting everywhere. I waded through the mud and spray to the controls and shut the pump off. The union fitting on the Waterco had split in half and was the source of a high-pressure leak right at the pump. The first time this happened, it was the top fitting; this time it was the bottom fitting. After a heavy sigh, I decided it would be necessary to do some plumbing work.
A little background here: my area requires a cartridge filter on swimming pools to conserve water. The thinking is that backwashing a sand filter wastes water and a cartridge filter solves that problem. The engineer that came up with that suggestion was an idiot. The person didn't think about the fact that cleaning a large cartridge filter takes a ton of water to clean. I actually used a pressure washer, and it took an hour or more to clean all four filters in the enclosure. Then, it would fill up with desert sand in a week during the summer, and here in Arizona, we have roughly nine months of summer. So it was almost a weekly task of taking out the cartridges, putting in a spare set, cleaning the dirty ones, and putting everything back in service. Cleaning the darn things took a whole lot more water than my neighbor's sand filter, plus the time and effort of doing it. When the cartridges wore out from incessant cleaning, they cost around $100 each; four filters in use and 4 on standby for changing, roughly $800 invested in paper.
Now, keep it to yourself, but I bought a sand filter and replaced that hunk of junk cartridge filter. The straw that broke the camel's back was when the assembly inside the cartridge filter failed and needed replacement. I looked at the cost of Hayward parts and decided it was time. After changing to a sand filter, the water looked just as good, backwashing took about 6 minutes, and I was done for at least three weeks before it needed it again. Much less work, much less water wasted, no cartridges to worry about replacing. A little bit of heaven for a change.
Getting back to the recent problem, the last time I replaced the fitting on the Waterco, it took over a week to get it, and that would mean a green pool. Additionally, the failure was exactly the same as the last time; the ring split in half.
I decided that over a full decade of good service while I was fighting the cartridge filter's problems was enough for this device and decided to eliminate it. Mostly because I realized that it really wasn't overpressure that destroyed the fitting; it was vibration. Years of motor start-stops, pressure changes, and constant vibration just wore the darn fitting out. That combined with the ease of cleaning the sand filter and its much better filtration meant that I really didn't need the extra filtration any more.
Time to simplify and eliminate another thing to take care of.
However, it was a bigger job than I first expected, actually much bigger. The darn concrete platform the equipment was sitting on was broken and starting to fall apart. Yes, the people that manufactured that piece of concrete for pool companies to install had left some of the rebar reinforcement outside the concrete and water infitrated causing the rebar to rust. When rebar rusts, it expands and cracks the concrete. I had a broken mess supporting my pool equipment. But pulling all the above ground plumbing, tearing out the broken slab, pouring a new slab, waiting for it to cure, putting everything back would take at least a couple of weeks.
What to do? I decided to take it in two steps. First, I would just get the pool back in service because it is June in the middle of Arizona and we only get half a day of active work before the heat drives us into the shade or under an air conditioner. Second, it's Summer, that's when you want a pool. Third, to support the weight of the filter, the concrete should cure for at least three weeks before you put weight on it like a sand filter and a heavy motor. Those three reasons made enough sense to me to do something different. After I got it in service with the broken slab and some inventive plumbing, I would cast the slab out in the back on a piece of plywood, let it cure for a few weeks, then dismantle the plumbing and move the new slab into place where it needed to be. Yes, the new slab would be heavy and hard to move, but I have a small skid steer, a small excavator, a Jeep with a winch on it, and pipes. I should be able to get that thing in place with all that stuff to play with.
Now to fix the plumbing and get the pool back in service so I can work on the second stage.
Well, it wasn't as easy as I made it sound. There simply wasn't enough room between the existing fittings to just put in a pipe with a couple of couplers on each end.
The arrow shows one spot that might have worked, but it was covered in glue and the surface was pitted pretty bad. I decided to replace the entire piece from the motor to the union up on top. That didn't seem too bad, but I would have to order the Hayward motor union part. It seems that Hayward is true to form in that they make everything custom to them. The motor coupler on the Hayward is different from a union that you can buy at Home Depot; it's different from a Pentair. It doesn't match anything one would expect it to. No, it has to be made special.
The price of the real Hayward replacement was over three times an aftermarket equivalent. So I got the less expensive (cheap!) one, and after waiting a day (Amazon Prime) for the part and then getting some common fittings, I went to work.
I had to replace the top union and all the fittings down to and including the special Hayward motor connection. So I spent a couple of hours lining things up and glueing them together. It really wasn't a huge amount of work; most of it was measuring pipe and cutting it. I got it all back together and gave the entire assembly an extra half hour before testing it for leaks. I turned on the motor in low speed and got it all primed up and working; everything looked fine. So I kicked it to high speed.
And it blew up.
The aftermarket (cheap) Hayward replacement fitting literally blew apart. Water shot up in a 2" fountain and soaked me and everything around me. In a real rush, I shut off the motor and looked at the damage. This is the part that failed:
No, the pipe didn't leak at the joint, nor did the union leak, The cener part actually blew out of the collar that holds the pipe to the motor and seals the connection. These things are two pieces, a female pipe connection with a flange that the collar pulls tight to a rubber washer on the motor fitting.
The centerpiece that connects to the pipe from the motor literally blew right through the collar and allowed that 2" stream of water to shoot right up in the air. Over time, I did a post-mortem on it. There were two factors that led to the failure. First, there was almost a 1.5 mm gap between the top of the collar and the pipe, where the original Hayward had less than a millimeter. Second, the plastic was softer and a tiny bit pliant instead of hard as a rock like the Hayward original. This is called 'durometer' if you want to look it up.
It's really hard to see in the picture because of the color and wear marks, but feeling the gap and the softer plastic, the problem became obvious. So, when the pressure increased, the plastic flexed a bit, and the larger opening allowed the entire female part of the fitting to shoot right through the hole in the collar. Sigh... Now, what to do about it? Well, the obvious choice was to just get a real Hayward fitting and bite the bullet.
This time I decided to put a union in the middle of my vertical run so I could dismantle the plumbing a little better and not have so many fittings to buy if something else happened. It was a good idea in theory. When I repeated the same test of running it on low, then switching to high, the Hayward fitting (real one this time) held up and didn't leak. I thought I was home free until I noticed a leak at the top of the new union. Glued fittings don't leave any room for error; you can't take them apart and fix them, but I was sick of messing with this. So, out came the J B Weld Water Weld.
If you've never used this stuff, it's great for this kind of thing. It can set up underwater and is actually sticky enough to hold things in place. I use it a lot because plastic fittings in the sun deteriorate over time and sometimes leak. This stuff can fix that. I let the pool run on high speed for a few hours to prove it would hold together.
So, the temporary plumbing repair was done. I could test it a bit more to get comfortable and then start on the new concrete slab for the equipment. Since I wasn't totally confident that everything was perfect and wanted to hedge my bet a bit, I turned off the pool automation and left everything for the next morning when the area would be in the shade.
The next morning, I went out near the equipment and turned on the pool motor... nothing. Walked over to the equipment, and the motor was not running at all. I checked the power; it was on. So, I tried it again and got that tell-tale buzz from the motor before it shut off. The most likely culprit was the capacitor. Off I went to get more tools for the pile by the gate, took the cap off, and checked it with a multimeter. That thing was a pure open circuit; something inside had actually broken.
Of course none of the local stores had one in stock, but Amazon Prime came through the next day before sundown, and I got it installed and tested. Although I had to wear gloves because by the time the part arrived, the area had been in the sun for a couple of hours.
Finally, I was done with this simple, easy repair job ... at least the easy part.
