A&A Manufacturing Pop up heads are Popping Out

[cwood40990]

We have a 20 yr old system. We are very familiar with basic maintenance. The system has not been working well for a while. So, we changed the low profile gear set and actually replaced all the pop ups. We also changed our pool filter as it was likely not providing clear flow.
Now, every time we turn on the pump the pop-up’s pop out due to strong pressure. At least 1-2 in each zone pop out.
The one on the shallow step has strong flow of water bubbling out and it stops indicating it is cycling to the next station. 0f course the few that are not popping out are also not popping up.
We are at a loss of what to try next. Any ideas?

 

[proavia]

Are you using the popup installation tool to install?
Are you turning the popup until fully seated?
Did you replace the popup O-rings as well?
Did you lube the O-rings?
Are the new popups the same series as the old popups?
Check the infloor receptacles for damage?

 

[cwood40990]

Thank you for checking. The answer is yes to all. We even put the old pop up’s back in the make sure it wasn’t a nuance with the new ones. We are turning and locking as we always have. They are Gamma 4 pop ups.

 

[proavia]

Single speed pump or variable speed pump? Horsepower?
Filter pressure? I'm assuming the low-profile valve doesn't have its own pressure gauge.
What filter do you have?

I've never heard of popups popping out do to 'strong pressure'.
If a popup on the current zone isn't popping up, you need to remove it and determine why it isn't popping up.
It takes quite a bit of pressure/flow to get the popups to popup and push enough water out to clean the pool.

My pool has 3 popups per zone and I've never had a properly functioning popup come loose in the 25 years the pool has been there. Original pump was a 2hp single speedand present is a 2.7hp VS.

 

[cwood40990]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We got in touch with the company that now owns the A&A Manufacturing equipment. Here is what they believe is the problem. We recently replaced the pool pump motor. It was replaced with a 2 HP motor. We had previously had a 1 1/2 HP. Based on the size of our pool (15x25), they said that the 2HP is far to strong and that we need to reduce back to a 1 1/2 HP. We sent them pics of the pump and the system. This was their recommendation. We have had this pool for over 20 years and like you, we have never had this problem prior. Does this sound logical?

 

[proavia]

My VS pump is rated for 2.7 hp. While I normally run it at 2900 rpm for cleaning, I can run it at 3450 rpm (full speed) without the popups popping out. Originally, my pool had a 2 hp pump. My 25 yo pool is about 12,300 gallons.

How many zones on your IFCS?
How many popups per zone?

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[TinFoilHat]

The way my A&A popups lock in means that if they ever popped out that the tabs are broken on the popup housing. If the center of the popup came out then it would mean the popup was destroyed. How can yours come out without damage in the pool fitting or to the popup? Now about you post photos of one of the popups that came out, out of the pool?