Pool builder trying to fix in-floor cleaner. Bad heating now

[rxman]

Long story.
I have an in-ground gunite pool. It was put in this year. It has a paramount in-floor cleaner. Originally, it was setup to run 2 skimmers, leaf skimmer and the in-floor cleaner through a 400,000btu heater all on one pump. This did not provide enough pressure at the heads to properly clean.

To fix this. My pool builder put the in-floor cleaner on it's own pump. The floor clean pulls water through one of the skimmers and then out through the floor heads on it's own pump. I believe this is how it should have been done.

The problem is heating the pool. To heat, the other pump pulls water through the skimmers, through the heater, but the only returns are in my spa. The spa then spills over into the pool to heat it. Will this work? It seems like it will be a very ineffecient way to heat a pool. As I stated above, in the original setup the heated water was returned through the cleaner heads. Now, it is returned into the spa.

Help!

PS. I do not have the new pump wired yet so I do not know what the outcome will be.

 

[launboy]

Personally, it sounds like putting in a bypass for the heater would have been a much easier(and cheaper) solution to the problem. This would probably improve the flow enough that you wouldn't have any issues while still allowing heating of the pool.

You could have them put in a three way valve that connects the old pipe from the heater that went to the cleaning heads, and the new pipe coming off the other pump. Then you could choose which source the in-floor cleaners get their water from.

The other problem with having the cleaners plumbed like you do is that without a filter, small leaves and debris that don't get caught by the skimmer baskets will be circulated to the cleaners, possibly clogging them?

HTH,
Adam

 

[rxman]

Thanks for the reply.
What are you saying makes perfect sense. Luckily, I did not have to pay at all for the new pump since the floor clear has not worked properly. At this point, I need to decide to keep the pump or to remove it and add the bypass.

My system is automated with the Jandy Aqualink PDA8. I would definitely need to have some sort of way to control the valve since my pump room is not easily accessable. I'm not sure if this can be done.

 

[JasonLion]

Having the heated water returning through the spa is not optimal, but it will work. You will lose a little more heat through the spa overflow than you would otherwise, but it will still be possible to heat the pool.

Your Aqualink should be able to be setup to control the valve, if you want to go that route. There are advantages to having the in floor system on it's own pump. In-floor systems require higher pressure than you would use otherwise, which can be rough on the filter.

Yet another option, would be to split the water from the heater so it goes to the spa and through the in floor system with a check valve. If the in-floor pump was on, it would all go to the spa. But if the in-floor pump was off a fair bit of the water would go through the in-floor returns (even though they wouldn't clean correctly).

 

[rxman]

Yet another option, would be to split the water from the heater so it goes to the spa and through the in floor system with a check valve. If the in-floor pump was on, it would all go to the spa. But if the in-floor pump was off a fair bit of the water would go through the in-floor returns (even though they wouldn't clean correctly).

Could you explain this a bit more? I'm not sure I understand how a check valve would work in this case. I do think this option would be the best.