I won’t bore you with conversations I have had with Hayward on the ECOSTAR pump I own and think is a POS.. but they know this or it would have a longer warranty.
Plumping from pool pressure tests OK and only drops .5psi over 24hrs.
The fact is it keeps loosing prime during the day sometimes, and I find it running dry.
Why they never put a pressure sensor in a $1200CAD pump to shut the pump off if it looses or does not prime.. is a mistake on their part.
My mission is to create this with an Arduino NANO, a pressure sensor and a relay module.
Note: I am not checking for a specific pressure.. I just need to set variable to higher than lowest value of pressure sensor.
ECOSTAR pumps have their own electronic speed control and timer built in.
There are connections for an external stop switch and onboard 24VAC power.
So basically if the pressure sensor drops pressure I want a relay to trigger stopping the motor for say 15s.
Once relay releases the stop switch is open and the prime cycle of the pump automatically runs for 3 min.
Also if the pump is not pumping there will be no pressure for the pressure sensor to register at the pressure port on the filter and the stop switch will be triggered/released making the pump do a prime cycle.
Seems all easy peasy...
But the relay will burn out cycling when the timer has the pump off.
So.. do I add a current sensor to go around one of the motor wires from controller?
Have the code test for current flow before checking pressure?
That way if timer shuts off pump.. Relay will not continuously go click,click,click...
Is there a better way to do this?
Wondering of anyone else has a different take on what I'm trying to do.
I'm not worried about what the actual pressure just that there is pressure.
In future.. along with a 2 line display, pressure reading and # of cycles may be somet
A vacuum breaker on the inlet it will by design admit air into the system and cause the pump to enter cavitation. That’s a safety design, if yours is doing that without blockage maybe you have installed too powerful of a pump for your installation?
You can definitely install pressure sensor, monitor sensor when pump is running, shut off system for a period of time if you detect a error, and ignore resetting for another period of time with a Arduino and a few parts. Possibly even add temperature sensor to monitor the pump make sure it’s running normally.
Slumpert:
A vacuum breaker on the inlet it will by design admit air into the system and cause the pump to enter cavitation. That’s a safety design, if yours is doing that without blockage maybe you have installed too powerful of a pump for your installation?
You can definitely install pressure sensor, monitor sensor when pump is running, shut off system for a period of time if you detect a error, and ignore resetting for another period of time with a Arduino and a few parts. Possibly even add temperature sensor to monitor the pump make sure it’s running normally.
Vac break - not on this model. it just gradually loses water until it does not pump.
Pump is not too big.. first one ran perfectly for 4 months... I could run it as low as 600 rpm and jump to 3400 for cleaning no problem.
Control died and it was replaced with a new one.
It was also replaced under warranty by Hayward a second time for similar failure.
Then another controller - then a lid... Once it was out of warranty there was no more support.. just told pump is not the problem. This pump is just a PITA.
JCA34F:
How high is the pump intake above the pool water surface? You may need an air eliminator on the intake.
About 8-10 inches from skimmer level depending on how full pool is.
Skimmer line is about 3ft deep in the ground.
Shallow end inlet is about 2.5ft deep.
Pump is at ground level on concrete slab.
Air will burn out the motor also. You might have a air leak in your line somewhere and when you do your filters you need to purge the air completely. You might want to have the system checked. I’ve seen pool systems that we constantly had problems with to find out years later it’s bad piping underground.
Making assumptions about the failure mode and acting upon that assumption usually just leads to more failures. But, I understand your position and the frustration.
A pump that fails to prime or primes and then loses it sure sounds like a pump with an air leak somewhere. But, what’s curious is a pump that runs dry shouldn’t result in a speed controller failure, it’s the pump that should fail due to cavitation or seal failure, depending upon design. If the controller has some kind of speed control prime cycle, well, that’s another unknown that may be a factor in the failures.
I suspect there’s a missing piece of the puzzle. It’s possible you have two variables in play, not just one. An electrical and a mechanical issue. It wouldn’t be the first time. Outdoor equipment with underground anything is always at risk. Lightning, water and shifting earth are the obvious factors while many more unknowns remain hidden underground.
Since it sounds like you don’t want to hire a professional pump expert to have a crack at it, by all means roll the dice with a bailing wire and bubble gum fix with a pressure sensor and a relay capable of power cycling of the pump.
When you do that, you don’t want to check amps at the motor. It’s a three phase permanent magnet motor and amps don’t mean what you think they do since it is variable speed. Just measure the supply current, it’s proportional to the shaft power of the motor, ignoring the current requirements of the controls which is negligible.
Check for unglued joints on the suction side. You'd be surprised at how things get missed at installation time as the contractor first puts the pipes together dry to check for sizing prior to refitting and gluing.
When the motor is running the vacuume pulls the lose pipes and joints together giving the illusion of a rigid well glued system.
If you opt to install a pressure switch, choose carefully as chlorinated salt water dissolves most metals and the liberated metal ions will ruin your expensive chlorinator electrodes.
Check for unglued joints on the suction side. You'd be surprised at how things get missed at installation time as the contractor first puts the pipes together dry to check for sizing prior to refitting and gluing.
+1 for what he said. We moved into a new house and a year in, we had a water leak on the kitchen ceiling. Turned out the plumber never glued the toilet flange onto the waste pipe and it took that long to leak enough to be detected even though it was used multiple times per day.
