Ball valve on overflow drain

[JamieP]

I've read where people put a ball valve on their overflow drain to control how much water drains from the pool during rain etc. This sounds like a good idea, but I can't picture where exactly the valve would go to be accessible. Can anyone enlighten me, please?

 

[tim5055]

The whole idea of an overflow drain is to allow the pool to drain once a predetermined level has been reached. I can't understand why anyone would want a valve on the pipe. But, I learn something every day so I'm open to learn....

 

[JamieP]

The whole idea of an overflow drain is to allow the pool to drain once a predetermined level has been reached. I can't understand why anyone would want a valve on the pipe. But, I learn something every day so I'm open to learn....

My understanding is that they may want to collect rainwater in certain circumstances instead of making the autofill do the work if the water is low. They keep the ball valve open when they are out of town, but adjust it manually when they are home.

 

[pooldv]

My overflow is set in the middle of the tile line and is piped with 2" pvc away from the pool to a run off area down hill from the pool. It would be easy to put a valve on the end of that pipe to stop the overflow. But, I'm with Tim in that I don't understand why you would want to. During heavy rain the pool fills up faster than the overflow can drain it and the skimmers don't work well or at all when the water level is an inch or higher than the the normal water level.

 

[OrlandoBull]

My old pool didn't have an overflow, but, when it would rain and looked like we were going to have several days after that with no rain, I would regularly let it stay higher than normal, knowing that I would have quite a bit of evaporation without rain. Usually I ended up having to pump it down in the end.

Are you planning an autofill? If not, I could see that working as well, if you are going to be out of town, you may want to put a bit more water in before leaving to make sure it doesn't get too low while you are away. We are doing an overflow now, but, no autofill. Honestly, I just felt like it was a waste since I will generally have eyes on my pool every day and have a hose near by. Of course, here in Central FL, we get a ton of rain, so, it's rare that water needs to be added.

 

[pooldv]

We have an overflow and an autofill and I wouldn't change a thing. The overflow drains water at the middle of the tile line and the autofill fills to about 1/2" below that water level. This helps keep water from splashing out with waves and playing. It has worked great for 3-1/2 years and it is worry free and maintenance free. I was worried at first about using too much water or wasting it. But, even in the drought we've had the last couple of years it hasn't been an issue. My water bill is maybe about 10 bucks more per month or less than before the pool.

 

[JamieP]

Thanks for those replies. It's interesting to hear different perspectives on the topic, especially since all of this is new to me and I've never experienced pool ownership and all the details that come with it.

Just FYI, this is the original post that had me thinking about putting a valve on the overflow. The discussion starts at post #6: Overflow drain question. It looks like people are mostly interested in preventing water loss through splash out into the overflow drain.