My "Giant Pond" is Almost a Real Pool! And Some Questions...

[BigGuy]

Hmm... strange, I thought the Jandy valve pointed to the off position?? Wherever it says OFF, that is the pipe that's off. The word OFF points to the pipe that's turned off, so if the word OFF is at the top, both returns may be off. Just turn it to the horizontal position for now so one or the other of the returns will be on. You can experiment with it after the pool is running.


-Rich

 

[WaterWoman]

Hmm... strange, I thought the Jandy valve pointed to the off position?? Wherever it says OFF, that is the pipe that's off. The word OFF points to the pipe that's turned off, so if the word OFF is at the top, both returns may be off. Just turn it to the horizontal position for now so one or the other of the returns will be on. You can experiment with it after the pool is running.


-Rich

No, I was remembering incorrectly and went back to edit that post. It says "INLET" up at the top. It says "OFF" on the handle itself, which makes sense. I think you are correct.

 

[WaterWoman]

One other question about the skimmer, just to be sure. Here's the diagram from the manual showing 2 types of residential installations.

Keeping in mind that our plumbing is reversed, with the line to the pump being the one in the front and the plugged one to the rear, the first diagram shows an installation without the float valve in which the line to the equalizer is plugged. The second diagram shows that pipe going to the main drain (in which case it would also make sense for it to be capped IF our main drain is not being used). If we are only using the line to the pump, as shown in the first diagram, the float valve is not used. The skimmer basket sits in there by itself just fine with the large plug in place on the unused pipe. So, I'm thinking, in either case, with that pipe plugged and not in use, we are OK to leave the float valve out of the setup and just put the skimmer basket in by itself. What do you guys think? That makes sense to me.

 

[gman]

wow this just got more confusing. Im wondering if the metel black pipe there is for that oval metel pipe in the pool. Which then makes me wonder what that extended pipe is.

 

[Ohm_Boy]

This is a lot of forum thread to try to catch up with, so I may have missed it, but we realize that if the metal pipe enters the pool at an angle and is cut off flush, it will be an oval hole, viewing it from the pool... right?

 

[WaterWoman]

This is a lot of forum thread to try to catch up with, so I may have missed it, but we realize that if the metal pipe enters the pool at an angle and is cut off flush, it will be an oval hole, viewing it from the pool... right?

Right. I think I did say that somewhere. It is angled toward the shallow end.

 

[WaterWoman]

wow this just got more confusing. Im wondering if the metel black pipe there is for that oval metel pipe in the pool. Which then makes me wonder what that extended pipe is.

It IS confusing, isn't it? The center pipe that had the PVC cap must also be metal, though, because when we uncapped it, rusty water poured out. I'm thinking (hoping) that is the other return, because it is bigger.

 

[launboy]

Alright, I read the whole thread and now I'll offer my 2 cents. :lol:

First, have you removed the cap on the capped pipe in the skimmer? I would do that and put the hose in it. Depending on how your plumbing is set up, that might be the line to the main drain(in which case, water will flow out the main drain when you put the hose in) or it might to to the equalizer. Worst case, you don't figure out where it goes and you just put the cap back in.

Now, I would also stick the hose in the open pipe next to the pump inlet. The way I see it, that pipe goes to one of three places. It either goes to the main drain, a second line to the skimmer(if they were thinking ahead they may have put this in incase something happened to the main skimmer line), or it might go to the Equalizer Port under the skimmer.

As for the diverter aka three-way valve... My bet is that the PVC pipe that comes out of the forward goes to the return with the reducer on it.

Then I bet if you dig around the metal pipe where it goes into the ground, it probably does a U-turn and comes right back up to one of the three pipes/valves in the manifold. The other two pipes in the manifold would then go to the two metal pipes in the side of the pool(the one that was capped that you said rusty water came out of, and the one that looks like an oval because of the angle.

Do the Hose tests I mentioned in the begining of this post and post back the results of where the water comes out.

Good luck figureing it out. Underground plumbing can be confusing!,
Adam

 

[WaterWoman]

Alright, I read the whole thread and now I'll offer my 2 cents. :lol:

First, have you removed the cap on the capped pipe in the skimmer? I would do that and put the hose in it. Depending on how your plumbing is set up, that might be the line to the main drain(in which case, water will flow out the main drain when you put the hose in) or it might to to the equalizer. Worst case, you don't figure out where it goes and you just put the cap back in.

Now, I would also stick the hose in the open pipe next to the pump inlet. The way I see it, that pipe goes to one of three places. It either goes to the main drain, a second line to the skimmer(if they were thinking ahead they may have put this in incase something happened to the main skimmer line), or it might go to the Equalizer Port under the skimmer.

As for the diverter aka three-way valve... My bet is that the PVC pipe that comes out of the forward goes to the return with the reducer on it.

Then I bet if you dig around the metal pipe where it goes into the ground, it probably does a U-turn and comes right back up to one of the three pipes/valves in the manifold. The other two pipes in the manifold would then go to the two metal pipes in the side of the pool(the one that was capped that you said rusty water came out of, and the one that looks like an oval because of the angle.

Do the Hose tests I mentioned in the begining of this post and post back the results of where the water comes out.

Good luck figureing it out. Underground plumbing can be confusing!,
Adam

Hi Adam! I'll run this by the hubby in the morning and see what we can do. I also think that the forward PVC pipe goes to the extended pipe with the reducer. That seems to be a later add-on. Interesting thought about the metal pipe in the rear doing a U-turn and going into that manifold, then the other two going to those two older lines in the pool. Hmmm... could be. That would make sense, I think. Thanks for the input!

 

[BigGuy]

I don't think there's any real way to tell now that there's water going into the pool and the main drain is covered. But I do think that the capped pipe in the skimmer goes to the EQ right below it (and just plumbed backwards) because there is a float valve in the skimmer. If there was a second pipe to the EQ from the pump (which would make no sense) there would be no float valve in the skimmer. There were originally three lines to the manifold at the pump, so I think the main drain was plumbed separately.

I say start it up as is and see what you have. I'm willing to bet that the capped return line and the one with the reduction fitting on it both return water.

The worst thing about this plumbing is, it has been re-plumbed, so there's no way to tell what's good and what's not anymore now that there's water going into the pool. I guess you have to assume there's a leak in the main drain pipe and leave it off for now.

Start it up as is and go from there...


-Rich

 

[gman]

when are you filling the pool??

 

[BigGuy]

She said she is already filling it on page two...

 

[WaterWoman]

I may have jumped the gun on starting to fill it, and I'm regretting that now. But I didn't know for sure how long it would take to fill. It had been sitting empty for about 6 weeks already, and I was getting worried about that, too. Plus, and I haven't mentioned this, but we're working against a deadline. We're having a party to celebrate our anniversary this coming weekend. I thought SURELY the pool would be operational by then! I think I mentioned the "pool guys"? Well, I had told them the first part of May that I wanted the pool swimmable by the weekend of July 4th, which I figured gave me some leeway. But when they flaked out on us, we waited several weeks for them to come back, when we could have been doing this ourselves. So, now, we're down to the wire. I'm going to check out what I can, but I think we're just going to have to fire her up and see what happens. I'll still need time to get the water balanced, too. Am I freaking out? Yeah, a little. If it isn't ready in time, well, at least we did all we could do.

 

[WaterWoman]

Also, a preliminary excavation by flashlight (I figured I'm up and it's a lot cooler right now than it will be tomorrow) shows no U-turn. The metal pipe that comes from the Jandy valve to the rear goes down and then angles out toward the middle of the pool (which I'm hoping means it goes to the middle pipe we uncapped today). The first pipe on the left side of the manifold angles back under the pool equipment toward the skimmer side of the pool. The second one seems to go straight ahead as far as I could tell. I don't know about the third one because I got tired of digging in the rocks and dirt in the middle of the night and gave up. All three of the valves on the manifold seem to be open, so I'm just going to leave it 'as is' and see what happens, I guess.

 

[Buggsw]

OK, thanks, Rich. You've been a huge help!

You, too, gman!

I'm learning so much about this just by talking with you both here, and am starting to feel more confidant that we can do this.

In looking at the plumbing around the Jandy valve, it seems to me that there definitely must be two returns, and the plugged one was probably the second one. The pipe to the left of the valve is all PVC. However, the pipe going to the right is attached to a metal pipe that then goes down into the ground back near the old metal manifold. Here's a closer picture of that. There is some black PVC between the white PVC and the metal pipe.

Does that make sense? Why would there be a valve and 2 pipes coming from it if there's only one return? Logic says there are two. Right?

Now, in conjunction with that, since this older metal return pipe appears to be functional, and it's going into the ground back by the old manifold, is there a chance that it is also might be functional? Based on that chance (however slim it may be), shouldn't we have those valves in whatever is their correct position also -- just in case they are working? If so, then what should we do with them?

I think you are probably correct about there being 2 returns. I imagine one is for the "water feature" one and the other is the regular return. The Jandy valve between allows you to switch between the 2 or turn one off or have them both open at the same time (I think).

This has been one interesting thread and fun trying to solve the mystery. Believe me, I know what you are going through with your home. I owned a 150 year old home that went through many modifications in it's life. In some ways it's really interesting to see the different materials used over the years.

It's a shame those pool guys flaked out on you. My experience has been much the same with pool people. There are so many fly by night, unsavory people in the industry out here. It's easy pickens with all the pools in this area. The pro's that post here are so helpful and volunteer so much. I hope they know they are appreciated. It's terrible there are unsavory pool "pro's" out there that make a bad name for the industry, so you have a hard time trusting any of them. When you find a good pool store or pool repair person/company - be thankful and treat them well in return.

 

[WaterWoman]

I think you are probably correct about there being 2 returns. I imagine one is for the "water feature" one and the other is the regular return. The Jandy valve between allows you to switch between the 2 or turn one off or have them both open at the same time (I think).

Hi Buggs! Yes, I hope this is the case. Thanks for the encouragement.

This has been one interesting thread and fun trying to solve the mystery. Believe me, I know what you are going through with your home. I owned a 150 year old home that went through many modifications in it's life. In some ways it's really interesting to see the different materials used over the years.

I'm glad the thread is interesting and fun. Wow, 150 years old, eh? I love older homes! This one was built in '51 and the pool was added sometime in the 60s (according to the neighbors). And yes, it is interesting. We've found all sorts of neat stuff. We found some old love letters in the attic when we were adding insulation up there. That was interesting. And we've found neat newspaper clippings with things like ads for eggs for 29 cents a dozen. We've found all sorts of "treasures" buried in the yard, too. And yes, the materials used for various renovations are interesting, too.

It's a shame those pool guys flaked out on you. My experience has been much the same with pool people. There are so many fly by night, unsavory people in the industry out here. It's easy pickens with all the pools in this area. The pro's that post here are so helpful and volunteer so much. I hope they know they are appreciated. It's terrible there are unsavory pool "pro's" out there that make a bad name for the industry, so you have a hard time trusting any of them. When you find a good pool store or pool repair person/company - be thankful and treat them well in return.

I know... I don't fault ALL pool pros. Just these particular guys. But then, they weren't very professional, either. I most definitely appreciate the pros who post here! I also hope they know how much they are appreciated. I don't know what I'd have done without this forum. Seriously.

 

[BigGuy]

Well I have to say, there are a lot of pretend "pros" out there! Last year, I had to go to CA for work for 3 months, so I hired a "pro" to take care of the pool while I was gone. He had a nice shiny truck and a big yellow pages ad, so I figured he might be okay. I made a deal with him to come every 7 days and check all the levels in the pool.

Me and my son built this pool ourselves 10 years ago, and in 10 years, the water has always been perfectly crystal clear and the pool still looks like new. Yet after only 3 months, I came home to cloudy calcified water after paying a "pro" to keep it up to my standards. It took me 20 days and a 25% dump (the first water dump in 10 years) to get it back in shape.

I'm no pro for sure! I can build them and keep them up, but I wouldn't call myself a pro by any means. I am glad that I had the assembly line training years ago though! I was able to save about 20K on my own pool and have never had to call out anyone except the backhoe person to dig it.

On the other hand, there are a lot of good pros out there. I guess the best way to find one would be word of mouth.

Once your pool is up and running, 10 minutes a day is all it takes to keep it squeaky clean! I get up before the sun, so I take my coffee and test kit out in the back and check the water. After that, I brush it down since my filter runs on a clock from 3am to 7am and that's it.

Right now, it's been raining for 3 days straight, and while most of my neighbors are experiencing algae blooms, here is what my pool looks like right now:

All it takes is 10 minutes a day, and I highly recommend you do it yourself!


-Rich

 

[WaterWoman]

It's beautiful, Rich! Thanks for sharing (both your story and your pool).

We plan to do it ourselves (by learning the BBB method). We do everything else around here ourselves, so it only makes sense to take care of the pool ourselves, too. I plan to teach my daughter how to use the test kit and use the BBB method, too (she's 27, and rents out our attic apartment). She will be the primary swimmer anyhow, and the house will be hers someday, so she might as well learn. I'm curious... How old is your son?

No rain here! We've got 100+ temps for the next few days (and dry as a bone -- it won't rain again, other than maybe a sprinkle or two, until October).

 

[launboy]

Did you ever get the motor replaced? How full is the pool now? are you still filling?

I hope you are able to make your deadline for the party!!!

Adam

 

[WaterWoman]

Did you ever get the motor replaced? How full is the pool now? are you still filling?

I hope you are able to make your deadline for the party!!!

Adam

Hi Adam! The motor is not in the system yet, but I am hoping it will be sometime tonight or early tomorrow morning. The water in the pool is covering the second step. Not much more to go! Man, I hope we make the deadline, too! We're sure cutting it close, but I have faith we'll make it. Thanks.