Equipment trouble

A grinding noise is usually bearings; a hum with no water is a seized motor or capacitor; a pump that runs but moves no water has air in the line or a blocked impeller.

Fix it yourself

1. 1Switch it off if it is humming without moving water — a motor that cannot turn burns out in minutes.
2. 2Check the pump basket and lid o-ring; a cracked lid or dry o-ring lets air in and the pump loses prime.
3. 3Check the skimmer basket and the water level — a low pool starves the pump.
4. 4Note the sound and whether water moves, and answer the two questions in the wizard for the likely cause.

Done when it primes within a minute, runs quietly and the filter pressure comes up to normal.

Pressure well above the clean reading means a dirty or worn filter; dirt returning to the pool means a torn cartridge, a cracked grid or a lateral in a sand filter.

Fix it yourself

1. 1Compare the pressure to the clean reading written on the tank or in your notes. High means clean it: cartridge rinsed, sand and DE backwashed.
2. 2Look at the cartridge pleats or the DE grids as you clean: tears, flattened pleats or a fabric that stays grey mean it is worn out.
3. 3A leak at the clamp band usually wants a clean seat and a new o-ring, not a new tank.
4. 4Dirt coming back into the pool is a part inside — that is a filter visit.

What you’ll need

In the store and online.

• Poolife® Backwash Filter Cleaner$27.99
• 105 sqft 7" Diameter Filter Cartridge$93.99

Done when the pressure sits at its clean reading and nothing comes back through the returns.

Most heater calls are flow or ignition: a dirty filter or closed valve starves it of water, or the igniter or gas supply is not doing its job. The display usually says which.

Fix it yourself

1. 1Write down the exact code or message on the display before you reset anything.
2. 2Check that the filter is clean and the valves let full flow through the heater — a flow fault is the most common one.
3. 3Make sure the gas valve is open and other gas appliances are working.
4. 4One reset is fine. If it faults again, leave it off and book — repeated ignition attempts are hard on the parts.

Done when it fires first time and holds temperature through a cycle.

"Low salt" with the right salt level is usually a cold-water or scaled cell reading low; "check cell" or no output is scale, a worn cell or a flow switch.

Fix it yourself

1. 1Test the salt with strips or a meter before adding any — the panel’s reading drifts, especially in cold water.
2. 2Pull the cell and look at the plates: white scale means it needs an acid clean; thin or flaking plates mean it is near the end.
3. 3Check that the flow switch is clean and the filter is not starving the cell of flow.
4. 4Add salt only to the number the calculator gives for your pool’s size — too much is harder to take out than to put in.

What you’ll need

In the store and online.

• Aqua Salt$10.99

Done when the panel reads a normal salt level and the pool holds chlorine on its own.

A pool loses some water to evaporation every day; more than that is a leak in the shell, the plumbing or the equipment pad. A bucket test tells which in a day.

Fix it yourself

1. 1Bucket test: set a bucket of pool water on a step, mark both levels, and compare after a day with the pump running. The pool dropping more than the bucket is a leak.
2. 2Look at the equipment pad with the pump running and again with it off — wet ground, drips at unions and the backwash line are the easy finds.
3. 3Check the water level stops dropping at the skimmer or light — a leak that stops at a fixed height points to that fitting.
4. 4Keep the pool topped up so the pump never runs dry while you wait.

Done when the level holds for a week with the pump running normally.