I have a Pentair Intelliflo pump system and lately it won't kick on to filter pool. It starts to prime and it won't create enough pressure on gauge to hit the threshold. It will get close and then it starts priming process over again. Any suggestions? I did have tons of leaves in the pool-side filter basket that I cleaned out. could the pipe be clogged? Thanks

Many pool owners seem to experience the situation with the Intelliflo Variable Flo (model numbers have changed over the past 3 years) pump alarming and re-priming continually and then stopping. I had this problem for nearly two years and spoke to the actual pump designer. We ultimately solved it as there was a spring valve in the heat pump I have. Any type of spring valve (or similar item) is a problem for the intelliflo as the pump is tooooo intelligent. When the spring opens and closes with water flow (or depending on what it was designed to do) it makes the pump think that there is a blockage and it reacts by shutting off and creating an alarm.

The solution is to replace the spring valves (or item that is varying the flow in the system) in your pool circuit. I was able to create a work around that used a manual valve just before the spring valve to reduce the flow so that the spring would not move and thus impact the pump. Basically you need to be ascertain if there are any parts in your pool flow that alter the water flow and thus pressure at any time (ie such as a spring valve) as the intelligence of the pump will take that to be an irregularity and shutdown. This can be time consuming and I hope this helps.

Note: you can test the pump to confirm that it is the intelligence that is causing the fault by putting the pump into FULL manual mode - consult the manual as merely pushing the manual switch does NOT disable the fault protection and system intelligence.