As many of you know, we’ve had our stock tank pool rock’n and roll’n for a couple of hot Houston summers now. And as many of you know, I’ve always struggled with the pool pump we purchased on Amazon- the Intex Krystal Clear Cartridge Filter Pump. It seemed to trip-up and stop working and then loose suction every other day or so. I initially thought we had a faulty filter pump, or perhaps didn’t get the right “size” for our pool. I was frustrated with it constantly and even recommended that you guys NOT purchase it.

I. WAS .WRONG.

It ends up, that we had a two part problem- causing it not to work properly.

1. I was not cleaning our filter out enough. It would clog up and ultimately stop sucking out the dirt. The motor was on and I could hear it running, but the water wouldn’t be circulating. When that happens, you need to chuck your dirty filter and replace it with a new clean one. We found it super annoying (plus minorly expensive) to throw away and replace the filters every time they filled up with dirt because, again, it seemed to happen ever other day or so. So David did some research, and found a better way. Here’s our new method, which has been working out nicely for us:

Yep, that’s right. It’s pretty simple. It ends up that you don’t have to throw away and replace your dirty filter with a clean NEW one, you can just clean your old one with a water hose to make it good as new. Just pop the top off your pump to access the dirty filter. Then take it out and spray it down.

Yuck! Be sure to spray out the really nasty algae blobs too:

2. The Pump Turbine Was Getting Jammed. Every so often the pump would just shut off. No noise. No response. Nothing would make it come back on. Turns out, the pump will do this when the little internal turbine is jammed up. I searched around and decided that I’m basically doing a quick and simple version of what this guy does.

Step by step on the Un-Jamming:

1. Unplug the pump. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL THE STEPS. ‘Cause don’t nobody wanna die over a hillbilly hot tub.
2. Pull out the filter and look down in the canister. That’s where your little pump turbine is.

3. Get your 2 longest screwdrivers and gently slide them down into the little turbine blades.

4. Use the screwdrivers to spin the turbine blades clockwise a few times around. This should un-jam anything stuck in there.

5. Replace the filter and properly purge the air from the canister. This can also be a reason for the pump to not work properly. If you’re not sure how to do that, here is a pretty good video on that (also a brilliant time capsule of summer 2002 awkward fashion).

6. Plug the pump back in. If you don’t hear anything, push the red button and see if you hear a click. If there’s a click, then she should be working.

7. If that doesn’t work. Try letting it sit for an hour or two. It could be that you also have an overheated motor that just needs to cool down.

Hope it helps! Enjoy your pool as we have been!