I made a huge costly mistake as a pool repair guy.
Hey guys,
I’m currently an apprentice at a pool company and have been in training for about two months. Today my boss gave me my first big solo job replacing, replumbing, and wiring a new filter pump. I got to there, plumbed everything in, but started running into issues with the electrical. My trainer came out to help me with the wiring. As we were walking back to the equipment pad, I mentioned, “It’s weird their water feature pump is running, but the new filter pump isn’t. It’s almost like they’re both wired to the same relay.” He paused, walked up to the pumps, and asked, “That’s the pump you replaced?” I said yeah, then he said "that’s the water feature pump, not the filter pump.”
I immediately felt sick. He called my boss right away and told him what happened. He was obviously disappointed, but he told me not to beat myself up over it. He said we might be able to reinstall the old water feature pump, but if that doesn’t work, we’re in a tough spot those specific unions aren’t made anymore. The alternative is tying the water feature plumbing into the filter’s return line and removing the old pump entirely, which will likely upset the customer.
I feel like a complete idiot. I went off a few pictures and assumptions instead of thoroughly inspecting and confirming which pump actually needed to be replaced. Lesson learned the hard way.
Just needed to vent morale is pretty low right now and preparing to get fired.