Intex owner general pump questions.

[flipmstr2]

I have just purchased a used 18'X48" Intex Pool.

I have a both the Intex 100o GPH and a 1500GPH Water master pump.

1) are the 1000 pumps generally noisy? I disassebled the impeller and all looks good in there ( although the rubber bushings that arethe bearings look like something out of my 10 gallon fish tank filter). I hook up the 1500 and it is a lot quiter.

2) O-rings: How to determine what size I have (or rather need as I don't have any) I can't find any part numbers on the plunger valves. There seems to be several different flavors on an of the sites I have been on.

3) Forgoing the hoses and coming out of the pool with PVC. I can;t find anything that will thread onto the Intex (union?) the part that goes through the pool wall. any thoughts? Size of pipe?

4) Vacuming/air. I think some of it might have to do with the lack of o-rings but If I have even a little air in my vacume hose, water flow comes to a stand still. If I went with the above mentioned piping system, would it be possible to have an external connection for the vacume hose? I broke my skimmer arm wrestling the hose of the intake port to hook up the vacume hose.

5) planning on trying to put some pipes on the roof for solar heating purposes. Anyone have success with doing that with these sized pumps.

 

[rghilliard]

Welcome to the board.

1. These pumps can be noisy. I'm not familiar with the "Water master" pump. Is that the Intex model 635 1500gph pump?

2. I would take the part you need the o-ring to fit to the hardware store to find the right o-ring. There should be a parts list in the manual. The manuals are available online at http://www.intexdevelopment.com/proifv/ ... &lid=11394. You could also call Intex.

3. I think they will work with 2" female pipe thread pvc, but have not tested that with the plunger or the threaded strainer connector (that's what Intex calls the part that goes through the pool wall). I would plug the hole as best I could and take the plunger with me to the hardware store. If you cannot fit it directly to pvc, you could use a fernco type adapter to bridge the two. The 2" Intex hose thread are not an exact fit for 2" Schedule 40 pvc so you can only get a few turns before they bind up, but you can usually make it work with thread tape and/or o-rings.

4. I hook my vacuum hose to the blue adapter that came with the skimmer. I do this because I don't have the adapter that fits into the skimmer, but it works pretty well since everything is under water.

Can't help with #5.

 

[flipmstr2]

Thanks for the answers, I was actually hoping to do away with the Plunger system and connect straight to the "threaded strainer connector "

I wonder if there is a market for Intex to standard pipe adapters ????$$$$

As far as taking the part in question to get sized, well, the parts and pools are in use so I guess I will have to devise a plug.

 

[rghilliard]

Well I feel stupid now. It would be pretty hard to take the "threaded strainer connector " to the hardware store with the pool full. :-D You could drain down to just below the top connector, that is the return on mine, and remove the connector. I would just leave the connector where it is and go buy a 2" and maybe a 2.5" FIPT pvc coupling and see how they fit. My guess is that 2" is what you need. They are very cheap. Just this week I paid $0.98 for a 2" mipt x 2" slip coupling and $1.25 for a 2" x 1.25" bushing at Home Depot for another Intex mod, so I say make your best guess and experiment. Leaving the connector in the pool should make it fairly easy to plug.

I wonder if there is a market for Intex to standard pipe adapters ????$$$$

I have been wondering the same thing. While it would be great to have them available, I don't know if there are enough of us tinkering types to make any money at it. For someone with the right equipment they would be very cheap to make, so you could have a big markup. I just have my doubts about the volume. If Intex would just use standard threads and tell us what size they are in the manual, mods would be so easy.

 

[flipmstr2]

I tried a variety of different pipes and threads. I found a 1" Union collar in cunjuction with 1.5" pipe almost worked, but could only get 2 threads to bite and there was such a gap that it didn;t pan out. Also found that the hoses almost fit onto a 1.25" compression coupling :x

On a more positive note, I did get the Plunger valve off so gonna get my o-rings tonight!
Those and some JB weld to repai the skimmer arm (PVC cement didn't do the job but for 2 days) and hopefully I will be almost perfect. Will look at the fittings you suggested.

 

[flipmstr2]

Struck out

 

[Langy3366]

Rubber boots could be the answer. They are used a lot in koi carp pools to connect different size pipes or to join up two slightly off line pipes. See me new thread on rubber boots. I'm in the uk so my example is a uk site but there must be us versions.

 

[rghilliard]

I hear those called Fernco (brand name) or flexible couplings. That is what I would try next. You can get them at Home Depot, Lowe's or pretty much anywhere that sells plumbing supplies. They are quite a bit more expensive than pvc, but you only need a couple.

Was the 2" pvc too small, too large or just not threaded the same? Do you know what model year your pool is? Posting this information is very helpful to others who will look at this thread in the future when they are trying to do something similar. I have seen pictures on this site posted by others who have made the connection to pvc. I wonder if they no longer check this site.

 

[flipmstr2]

Where is the date code?

Mostly they where too big or the one that was really close, wrong thread.

Pipe thread is usually tapered \_/ so it get tighter as the connection is made. however, what I found to actually fit was not pipe threaded so the tapering didn' allow it to thread on.