How to PROPERLY Replace a Pool Pump

Hey guys, Chris Fix here. I just got back from vacation to my pool looking like this and that is not good. And if we come back to the pump, you could see it's humming. Oh, it just stopped humming. That's not good. It's not pumping at all, so we're going to shut this off and we're going to go replace our bad pump. First thing you want to do is kill the electric at the panel. Then we can unscrew and remove the cover on the back of the pump. And I always like to verify there's no electric running to the pump and you could see there's nothing. Then we can unscrew the ground and remove the wire. Unscrew the first leg and remove the wire and unscrew the second wire. With the wires loose, now we can pull them out and I'm going to remove this 90° bend, which we might use later. Now we need to remove the hoses. So, in order to do that, first I'm going to do is set this to close so we don't have any water coming in or out. Keeps it a little more dry. Now I'm going to cut the top PVC pipe close to the pump. Same thing for the front of the pump, cut it and now the pump could be moved out of the way. Now this is going to be the trickiest part of this entire thing. We have a PVC pipe which is glued into this valve right here. We don't want to ruin the valve, but we want to remove this PVC pipe. So, a little trick is to cut two slots into the PVC making sure you don't cut into the valve. Then use a heat gun to heat up that PVC pipe so it gets soft and now you can use pliers to start pulling out sections of the PVC. So, just keep working away at the PVC pipe, breaking off the end pieces and some of the inside will also come out with it. Now here's the last piece inside the valve and you could see it's soft so it bends and it comes right out. Beautiful. With the hardest part done, we're all good here. So, let's go replace our pump. Out with the old and in with the new. Now the old pump was incorrectly set up because it was too close to this valve. We need a nice straight run to smooth out the flow of water because it's all turbulent in the valve. So, let's move it back 12 in. Now to install the PVC pipe, first we use purple primer and coat the entire outside of the valve and then coat the inside of the PVC pipe like so. Then right away coat the same parts with the PVC cement coating the entire outside of the valve and inside of the PVC pipe. Then push the PVC pipe over the valve and rotate it as you push to make sure the cement spreads and seals the pipe. And once it's all the way seated, just rotate it a little bit more. Beautiful. 15 minutes later, this is dry and we're ready to add our gasket and close this gap. So, line this up like so and now we can tighten down the collar to make a leak-free seal. Beautiful. Now, with that done, I did use some rubber shims on the feet. That way, it's nice and level. So, now we just need to get the top pipe installed. Beautiful. So, with all the plumbing done, the last thing to do is come back here, add the conduit with the wires, and tighten it down to seal it. Now, we need to connect the green to the ground and tighten this up. And then we want to put one hot leg to L1 and get the other hot leg to L2. The order doesn't matter. And then finally, we can put the cover on and tighten it down. Now, a couple hours later, let's turn on the valve and add the water to the pump so it doesn't run dry. Put the lid back on, turn the breaker on, turn the switch on, and let's start this pump. And with our pump running for a few minutes, we want to go and check to make sure there's no leaks. And I don't see any water dripping anywhere. All right, so this is what the pool looks like before and here's a few days later. Beautiful. And that's how to properly install a pool pump yourself to get your pool looking amazing.