Equipment Repair

Humidity, salt air off the river and hard water are rough on a pool pad. The single most common call is a pump that has started screaming or leaking at the shaft seal — usually bearings or a seal that dried out after a long off period. Second is a filter that will not hold pressure, which is almost always a torn cartridge, worn multiport valve spider gasket, or DE grids that have split. Third is a salt cell that has scaled over and stopped producing, which people often mistake for a low salt level.

Heaters fail differently here. Gas heaters get ignition and flame-sensor faults from moisture and insects in the burner tray, and heat pumps ice up or trip on low refrigerant pressure. Automation panels take lightning hits every summer, which is why we test actuators and relays individually instead of replacing a whole board on a guess.

Every repair starts with a real diagnostic: amp draw on the motor, pressure and flow readings across the filter, voltage at the panel, and a visual check of every union and fitting for the slow leaks that quietly drain a pool overnight. That data is what tells us whether you need a simple gasket or a new pump.

We will tell you plainly when a repair is not worth it. A fifteen-year-old single-speed motor with bad bearings is usually a replacement, and a variable-speed pump often pays for itself in about two years of Louisiana summer run times because it can move the same water at a fraction of the wattage. On the other hand, a heater with a cracked heat exchanger and a working control board is often worth the part. We give you the number both ways and let you decide.

Common upgrades we handle: variable-speed pump conversions, cartridge filter upsizing so the filter is not cleaned every three weeks, color LED light retrofits, automation and app control, and re-plumbing a pad that was built with too many sharp turns to move water efficiently.

Some evaporation is normal in July — up to a quarter inch a day is not unusual. More than that, or a level that keeps dropping to the same point and stops, points to a leak at the skimmer throat, a return fitting, the light conduit or the pad plumbing. We pressure test lines and dye test suspected fittings rather than guessing, because chasing the wrong leak gets expensive fast.

Pad plumbing repairs are done in schedule 40 PVC with proper sweeps and unions so the next repair does not require cutting the whole manifold apart. If the leak is under the deck or in the shell, we tell you and bring in the right specialist instead of pretending it is a pad problem.