Desperate for help on in-ground spa jet problem

Ugotabkdin

Member
May 12, 2016
17
Sacramento, CA
Pool Size
16850
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
I am a new homeowner and thus a new (and confused) pool/spa owner as well. The jets on the spa are not working properly, and none of the folks who have looked at it seem to have a clue (although I haven't gotten a spa specialist out yet).

First, to get the jets to pull in any air, I have to turn the pump up pretty high, possibly because my filter needs a cleaning. That would not be a problem, BUT....

When I do that, water flows OUT the air intake pipes in the deck! It seems impossible to me that water is flowing OUT of those while there is air coming through the jets, but that is what happens.

There is one jet that is a particular problem, and the air intake pipe that shoots the water out most is connected to that jet. This jet has clearly greater water flow than the other 3. Now, I have drained the spa and looked into the jets and noticed that it appears this problem jet is missing a piece. I believe it is the nozzle. But I would think that NOT having the nozzle in would result in the water just flowing out of the jet faster, without causing the backup into the air pipes. Is that totally wrong? If I just get the nozzle installed in there, would this jet properly draw air into the jet and thus fix the problem? I can't conceptualize much of this well.

I've attached a pic of the water flowing out of the air intake pipes. (It looks like it uploaded upside down, no clue why...) Not sure that is very helpful, but at least we know I am not making this all up.

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Thanks. That was my first inkling, and I looked through those results. None of the steps for cleaning/clearing the jets could help, although I could not fully try all of them because I cannot remove the nozzles (in the jets that have them) yet. This brings me to another point:

I did some further visual inspection of the jets and see that the nozzles cannot be removed with a extended standard socket wrench. Instead of a hexagonal shape, the nozzles have what appear to be two slots for a "toothed" or "2-pin" socket. It is kind of hard to believe it would be so non-standard, as I can't find any examples of that outside the automobile setting. Any other ideas welcome.
 
I don't see any results from such a search that looks like it would be able to remove the nozzles. I doubt I could get a good picture of them to show here...but I may try if I get that desperate. Basically there are two holes on each side of the nozzle opening where pins would fit into, I presume to unscrew the nozzle. Otherwise I see no way the nozzle could be removed.

I'm tempted to try using a stub wrench rigged with a latex rubber covering to unscrew them, but I don't know if I could find one small enough.
 
Thanks. One of those things look like it would actually work.

Turns out, though, that there is no blockage. The missing nozzle was the only issue. That jet was not pulling in any air, so the water flowed out that air intake, and there was not enough water flow to pull air from the other jets. Now they all work!
 
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