How To Stop Your Pool Pump Squealing When Cold

If your pool pump is squealing in cold weather when you turn it on this indicates that you have an issue with the bearings.

Lower temperatures restrict the flow of lubrication around the bearings.

This causes increased friction which is responsible for the squealing noise, it can also cause a lot of damage and can lead to pump failure so should be fixed as soon as possible.

Typically squealing noises will happen when the pump is first turned on, it will usually last for up to 30 minutes.

The noise eventually goes away as the bearings warm up the movement inside the pump becomes smoother and the noise disappears.

However if you allow the pump to cool down and then restart it again the noise will begin once again.

How To Stop Your Pool Pump From Squealing:

As we’ve said this noise is caused by faulty bearings.

Sometimes this noise may be so loud that you can hear it inside your home or even outside in the yard!

The good news is, there are things that you can do to eliminate these squealing noises from your life:

1. Change The Bearings

This is probably the best solution to this problem.

The bearings are what cause your pool pump from squealing when cold so it makes sense that if you replace them, then there will be no more noise! This may seem like a lot of work but changing out these small components won’t take too long and can save you a lot of trouble in the future.

To do this yourself here’s what you need to do (this guide is for on a Hayward pool pump):

First you will need the following:

• New motor bearings
• Socket wrench
• Bearing puller
• Shaft seal parts
• External ring pliers
• Hammer
• Short pipe

1. Use the socket wrench to the cover on the back of the motor.
2. Clamp the wrench onto the shaft to prevent it from rotating as you unscrew the impeller.
3. Rotate the impeller counterclockwise to unscrew it.
4. Now remove the seal and mounting plates.
5. Remove the motor mounting plate.
6. Remove the water slinger (small rubber ring) from the shaft.
7. Unscrew the V-switch (it looks like a V) so it is detached from the motor (you don’t need to disconnect it from its wire).
8. Release the motor capacity from its bracket and move it out of the way (again don’t disconnect the wire).
9. Now remove the springs on the governor bracket and slip out the bracket, this will reveal a large screw which you should also remove.
10. Now it’s time to remove the shaft assembly, unscrew the four big bolts on the rear of the motor.
11. Lightly knock off the front end using the hammer.
12. Remove the front end bell, remove the locking screw and pull the front end bell out then take the front end bell from the shaft by lightly tapping it with the hammer.
13. Position the bearing puller on the rear bearing so that the teeth of the bearing puller are positioned on the outside rim of the bearing. Turn the nut on the bearing puller to pull the bearings off.
14. Check the I.D on the bearing nut to make sure you have got the correct replacement.
15. Now move to the front bearing, pull the snap ring off the shaft.
16. Use the bearing puller to pull off the front bearing.
17. Now you can put install the new bearings, simply follow the steps in this video:

2. Replace The Whole Pump

As you can see from the previous step manually replacing the bearings yourself is no easy task.

If your pump is still in warranty then a quicker and far easier solution is to get the whole pump replaced.

3. Warm It Up Prior To Use

This is more of a short-term strategy however if you need to use your pool pump today and you don’t want to make unnecessary squealing noise then this can work very well.

In cold weather the oil around the bearings doesn’t lubricate them as well causing more friction.

Warming the pump up before you use it will help prevent this and will reduce viscosity and allow the bearings to move easily and far more quietly.

The best way to warm up your pool pump is by using the sun…i.e waiting until the weather warms up and then turning it on, however if this is not an option then a heat lamp can work very well.

Place the heat lamp over the pool pump within a couple of feet from it. Give it 20-30 minutes of heat before turning off the heat lamp and starting the pool pump up.