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Polaris Booster Pump Troubleshooting & Repair Guide

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The Polaris booster pump is the driving engine for the Polaris pool cleaner. The booster pump provides a higher pressure then the swimming pool pump can so it can drive the Polaris cleaning unit. From time to time your booster pump will need some repairs or could have a problems that can only be diagnosed with some booster pump troubleshooting. Polaris Booster Pump Troubleshooting & Repair Guide

Some common things that go wrong with the Polaris booster pump are bad mechanical pump seals, overheated suction and discharge fittings and leaks from the Polaris quick connect fittings. All of these problems can be fixed with a few replacement parts that are available online or from your local swimming pool supply store that carries replacement Polaris booster pump parts.To avoid costly booster pump repairs you should always replace the small parts that are starting to show wear or damage right away. This means if you start to see your pump seal leaking, don’t wait until it gets so bad that you cannot run the pump.
Polaris Booster Pump

Soon as you see it leak replace it. This goes for anything else you see going bad on the pump. If you feel that something is going to break or looks like its damaged, you will want to shut the pump off right away and fix the problem. Ignoring or “putting off” the problem with the pump will only let the problem become worse and that will usually cost you more money and time to do the repairs.

How To Change The Polaris Booster Pump Seal

The Polaris booster pump seal is located inside of the seal housing. You will have to remove the front of the pump to first access the impeller. Once you have the front of the volute off you will want to now remove the impeller. In order to remove the impeller you will have to grab the back of the motor shaft and then with your other hand you will want to twist the impeller counter clockwise spinning it until it spins completely from the motor shaft.

Now that you have the impeller off you will want to unbolt the seal housing from the frame of the motor. Once you remove the seal housing you can remove the seal base. This is just one part of the mechanical pump seal. The second part of the Polaris booster pump seal will be in the small shaft of the impeller. You will also want to remove this part from the base of the impeller, as you will be replacing both parts of the booster pump mechanical seal.

Once you have removed both the pump seal seat and the spring from the impeller you can replace both parts for the new replacement Polaris pump seal that you have bought. It’s always a good idea to put a tad of silicon on the outer rubber casing of the seal seat. This will hold the seat in place inside the seal housing and also safeguard the seal base from leaking. After you insert the seal base you can slip the other part of the mechanical seal onto the impeller. Now you can turn the impeller clockwise and thread it back onto the pump shaft until it’s tight. Once the Polaris pump impeller is tight you can re-assemble the rest of the Polaris pump as the pump seal has now been changed.

How To Repair Suction Leaks On The Booster Pump

The Polaris booster pump could have some suction leaks in a few common places. The most common places that the booster pump will draw air from is the suction fitting and the volute drain plug. To avoid any air being sucked into the Polaris pump you will want to make sure that you Teflon tape both he threads on the suction fitting and the Polaris pump drain plug.

How To Hook Up The Polaris Booster Pump

The Polaris booster pump can be piped directly into your swimming pools filter system using PVC pipe or it can be installed with saddle clamps that can be connected to the existing swimming pool plumbing. Either way there is only one correct way to hook up the Polaris booster pump.

There is two fitting on the booster pump. The fitting in the front of the pump is called the suction fitting. This fitting will get connected to the discharge side of the swimming pool fitting. This is very important, as you will need to feed the suction side of the Polaris pump with pool water from the filter system. That is why you need to hook it to the discharge side of the pool system. The second fitting or the second connection you will make is to connect the discharge side of the Polaris booster pump to the line that returns back to the pool or to a flexible line that will go to the pool. Whether the Polaris is hooked to the wall fitting in the pool or if its being feed from a flexible like from the top of the discharge side it is important to remember that the Polaris 360, 390 or the Polaris black max are pressure driven units.

How To Turn On The Booster Pump

The booster pump will run if the pool pump is running. This is a safe guard to make sure that the proper amount of water flow is going through the booster pump. As we explained above the Polaris pump needs water from the discharge side of the swimming pool pump so when the Polaris pump is wired by the electricians it should be wired to only come on when the pool filter and pump are running.

To turn on the booster pump you will want to first turn on your swimming pool pump and let it come to full prime. Once the swimming pool pump has been running for a few minutes you can either turn the booster pump timer switch or on use the manual switch that will be located somewhere near the filter system or the timer control panel. Some pools will have both the manual Polaris override power switch and the Polaris timer and some will just have one or the other. Depending on who built your swimming pool will depend on how they wired your Polaris pool cleaning system.

How To Set The Booster Pump Timer

If you have a timer on your Polaris swimming pool cleaner you will want to set it to go on 30 minutes after your pool filter timer comes on. You will want to have the Polaris cleaner shut off about 45 minutes before the filter system does.

To set the timer on the Polaris you first will have to locate the time box. Once you locate the time box you will want to open the timer cover door and inside you will see a dial and two-timer pins. These timer pins will each have a small setscrew in them that you can loosen by hand. One time pin will say off and one timer pin will say on. If you turn the setscrews to the left, which is counter-clockwise you can loosen them and then slide them on the dial to the correct time. Once you have the off and the on pin set you can switch the timer on and if its between those times and the pool filter system is running your Polaris will start working.

Popular Polaris Pump Troubleshooting Questions:

Question: “Does my Polaris Pump filter my pool?”

Answer: No, The swimming pool filter system actually filters the pool but the Polaris unit will pick up and bag the debris inside of the pool.

Question: “Where can I get my Polaris Pump repaired?”

Answer: Most pump or motor repair shops can repair the Polaris pump.

If you have another Polaris Pump question please ask below:

189 Comments

  1. Hello,

    I went on vacation and came back to a hot mess in my inground pool. A friend was taking care of it for me and quite frankly has made a mess of things. First, the pool has no pressure. Second, the pool is losing water from my backwash hose. I took a part my Haywad Vari-flo to see if the seal was damaged but there is still no pressure in the pool. Can you give me an idea of what it might be? If I call my pool company this problem could cost me hundreds. I was truly going to try and figure it out for myself before I have to call them. Please let me know what advise you might have!!
    Sincerely,
    Shirley

  2. Hi
    My Polaris pump remains on the reverse cycle. How do I fix this. It has plenty of power, etc. But the reverse cylce now never quits it the pump is turned on. Thanks

  3. Have a leak in the positive pressure side return at the pool wall. Water leaking behind the liner!!! Any suggestions for a wall fitting replacement without digging. Could it be simply a cracked seal behind the liner??

  4. I am replacing my booster pump impeller along with the seals. My question is which way does the seal fit into the impeller…rubber side to impeller or rubber side facing away (toward motor)? None of the diagrams are clear enough to tell and I neglected to look at the old one close enough before taking it apart (thinking originally that all I needed was the seals).
    Thanks

    • Hi Jerry.

      The two “ceramic” parts of the mechanical seal face each other. So the seat will go in with the rubber side facing the housing and the spring side of the seal will have the ceramic facing the ceramic on the other part of the seal.

      Let me know if you have any more questions or need more help,

      Joseph

  5. Hi,

    The 3/4 hp booster pump on my polaris seems to be running hot. This is the 2nd booster pump that I have replaced in the last four weeks and they all seem to be running hot around the casing. I am worried that the transfer of heat to the impeller shaft will eventually destroy the impeller. The previous replaced pump ran hot and the impeller failed and had to be replaced. I really believe it had something to do with the heat coming from the pump. The old orginal booster pump for the polaris never ran hot and I never had these problems. Our pool dealer (Leslie) went to a different vendor for the booster pumps, Emerson and I am unsure whether it is a design problem with the pump. Any ideas that you can provide will be appreciated.

    Thanks

    Ernest

    PS. The new Emerson pumps have Auto Thermal cutoff and will shutoff intermittently.

    • Hi Ernest,

      I bet these “new motor” designs are the problem, I think you answered your own question when you said this:

      “Our pool dealer (Leslie) went to a different vendor for the booster pumps,”

      I would save the warranty card for sure.

      Joseph

  6. I have just replaced my Polaris booster pump. It starts up and runs fine for about a minute, sometimes two, but then shuts down. It will make a noise like it is trying to restart after another minute or so but does not. The old pump was tripping the circuit breaker so I thought it was an internal short in the moter. The new one does not trip the breaker. I can restart the new pump almost immediately once it shuts down by cycling the on/off switch. The motor doesn’t seem overlly warm and the output at the pool wall is excellent when the pump runs. Any ideas?

    • Hi Ron,

      It sure sounds like the capacitor , if you look @ the 74 Responses to “Polaris Booster Pump Troubleshooting & Repair Guide” above, you will see more of what I mean, spend some time and read these comments, Tons of info.

      Joseph

      • Joseph –
        I used a Sperry DM-350A meter to check the capacitor. The range was set at 20k. When I turn the meter on it registers “1.”
        but that seems normal for this meter. I shorted the leads with a wire and attached the meter. The readout ran to 18.6 and then returned to “1.”. Since I don’t start at zero and there is no infinity reading am I correct in interpreting the results as a bad capacitor? Sorry if I seem dense but I am 73 and still learning.

  7. Can someone please tell me exactly how to use my Polaris pool vac? Do i put the pump on filter or backwash, etc? I am new to this and I don’t know what I’m doing. I have a inground pool with vinyl liner. Thanks.

  8. I had a small leak which looked like it was coming from the quick connect part attaching the hose to the booster pump. I have now replaced the part twice with new plumbers tape and all. It works fine for a few minutes…even up to an hour or so, but then the pressure seems to ramp up and it pops the fitting up and starts spewing water again. Why is this happening? Is there something broken inside the booster pump, is the pressure too high, or is it the installation of the part?

  9. Hello. I’ve broken my PB4-60 booster pump for my Polaris 380. Like an idiot, I didn’t turn off the booster pump when I started a backwash cycle. So… the PB4 pumped dry for about 10 minutes. At this moment, the motor “humms” when I power it on, but the pump doesn’t turn. My question is: Did I burn up the motor, or just the pump? If just the pump, then is it possible to buy just the pump itself without a motor? Thanks for any help!

  10. I am stuck at the point of holding onto the shaft and turning the impeller counterclockwise to remove. I cannot get my pliers to hold onto the shaft tightly enough to grip the impeller and remove.

    Any advice on this one? The plastic impeller cannot take a wrench and the round shooth shaft has no way of gripping it?

    Thanks,
    Dan

    • Hi Dan,

      If you pop the shaft motor cap off of the back of the motor, you will see a slot in the shaft that you can hold back with,

      Let me know if you need more help,

      Joseph

  11. Occasionally my booster pump runs dry due to my filter clogging. A few times it has ruined the pump. it has done it again. After fixing the lack of flow through the filter, when the booster pump is turned on it squeals. I assume that the noise is coming from the pump section and not the motor. Is the noise coming from the pump/impeller section or from the motor. What parts need to be replaced? in the past I just paid the $200 to replace the entire pump. This is the third time in 6 years that I have had this problem.
    Thanks,
    -Greg

    • Hi Greg,

      A re-build usually consists of new motor bearing, a new mechanic pump seal and some lube. The bearings are generally $10 or so each and the seal is around $12 depending where you buy it. The squealing sound you hear is most likely the motor bearings.

      Let me know if you have any more questions.

      Joseph

  12. Noticed my booster pump leaking and took it apart. The thread on the end of the motor shaft is stripped and cannot hold the impeller on anymore. Is there a replacement shaft with thread or which I fear – Must I buy a new motor? Thanks.

  13. Can someone help me, recently I went out to my booster pump after a hard rain and it would not start, I noticed a lot of ants which I sprayed right away. It did not start that day, but the next day it did start and I thought great. Well today 23 Sept 09 it will not start again:( It is dry and no ants, any ideas on what troubleshooting i can do to correct this problem? I have to turn on this pump with the C/B.

    Thanks

    Gary

  14. Please help. I have a Polaris 280 and Booster Pump PB4. When I turn on the booster pump it sounds as if it is running but the polaris in the pool does not move. As far as I know, have cleaned all the filters at the pool and the lines appear to be clear. Can someone tell me what may be wrong and if there is something else I need to do.
    Thanks,
    Vivian

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