My latest pump has been in operation a few years and has started to fail to keep suction through the filter basket which then seems to cause cavitation and total pumping loss. The first time it happened it was because there was a huge frog in the lines that finally got sucked through to the basket. But lately it will work for a few minutes then lose all pumping action. I finally figured out it was air coming into the system via the strainer lid. The O-ring was not blocking air no matter how much I tightened it down. I was going to buy a new lid and o-ring but could not find them, so I would have to buy a new prefilter kit.
But then I read about O-ring lubrication with a $20 product. It fixed most peoples problems. But upon further research I found folks who used a $2.00 jar of vaseline to do the same thing. I lubricated the o-ring and put some of the vaseline around the lid housing and viola – it started pumping with full force once again and I still have plenty of Vaseline left for future repairs.
