Four Different Faults, One Phone Call
"My pool pump is not working" is the single most common pool call our Brackenfell pool repair team takes in Brackenfell — and it covers four unrelated faults. A pump that is dead silent and will not switch on is usually electrical: a failed run capacitor, a tripped earth leakage, or a motor that has seized after standing all winter. A pump that hums or runs but moves no water has an air or blockage problem on the suction side. A pump that howls, grinds or vibrates is normally worn bearings or cavitation. And a pump that gets hot, smells of burning or trips after a few minutes is a winding or capacitor fault that should be switched off rather than nursed along. They need different parts and different quotes, which is why we measure before we sell you anything.
Why a Pump That Will Not Hold Prime Is Usually Not the Pump
If you have to fill the pump basket by hand every time before it will pull water, the pump is doing its job and something ahead of it is letting air in. The usual suspects are a perished lid o-ring on the pump basket, a cracked basket housing, a water level that has dropped below the weir mouth, a blocked weir or pump basket, a half-closed valve, or a leaking union or underground suction pipe. Replacing a healthy pump because it loses prime is one of the most expensive mistakes in pool ownership, and it is a mistake we see already made by the time we arrive. Most of these calls reach us as either "the pool pump is not working" or "die swembadpomp het opgepak" — same job either way.
Repair or Replace, Honestly
A capacitor, an o-ring, a basket lid, a set of bearings or a cracked union is a repair, and usually a same-week one. Burnt motor windings on an older pump are a different conversation: the rewind or new motor often costs a large share of a new pump that will draw noticeably less electricity, so we will say so rather than quietly charging you for both over two visits. When we do recommend a replacement we size it to the pool volume and the filter, not up: an oversized pump costs more every month it runs, pushes water through the sand too fast to filter properly, and stresses the plumbing. If the failure is a claimable one we can provide a written fault report with photographs for your insurer.
Worth Checking Before You Call
Four quick things that occasionally solve it for free. Check the breaker and the earth leakage at the DB board, and whether anything else on that circuit tripped at the same time. Check the water level is above the mouth of the weir — a pool that has dropped over a hot week starves the pump of water. Open the pump basket and the weir basket and clear out the leaves. And if a Kreepy Crawly or suction cleaner is attached, disconnect it and see whether suction returns: a blocked or worn cleaner head, or a split hose, mimics a failing pump almost exactly. If none of that changes anything, the fault is in the pump or the pipework and needs someone to look at it.
