Quick question about plumbing pool filter and pump

[grrltraveler]

We are moving our pump and filter and my DH has a quick question. Should the pipes be completely level to the pump and from the filter? It seems to me it would be good to have it level to the pump since it makes it work less hard to pump the water but back from the filter, a little downhill slope would be helpful? I hope this makes sense! :-D

But if they both need to be level, that's ok. He just wants an answer from someone in the know!

Thanks
Anne

 

[woodyp]

I'm no expert, but I'd say it's a rare occassion where all the piping is level. Look at some of the pics posted on here.

 

[JasonLion]

Level, almost level, not level are all fine. The main thing is to not add any bends that you don't have to. That isn't an absolute rule, one or two extra 90s are not a big deal, but if you can rearrange things easily to take out a 90 it is worth doing.

 

[grrltraveler]

I thought I would post two photos of what we've done - at this point, we've done a wet connection of the filter and pump pipes (basically turned about 45 degrees from where it was going) and we're hopefully going to hook up the equipment at the other end with one 90 degree turn (not connected yet in the photo). Does this look like it would be ok?

Thanks
Anne

 

[JasonLion]

Yes, that looks fairly good.

You don't normally want to put ball valves underground. Are those intended to stay there, or is that just temporary?

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

You also don't want those rubber couplings in there. They won't last and are only meant for Drainage, Waste, and Vent (DWV) use, not pressure applications.

Scott

 

[grrltraveler]

You mean the rubber couplings aren't considered a "wet connection"? The reason I ask is because we have water flowing out of those pipes and he couldn't get the cement on there since it's gushing water. This is the only way we could do it. We were going to test everything before we bury it again - are you saying that it won't work at all because it's going to be under pressure? Will it work temporarily because apparently I have to drain a lot of the pool to get my CH level adjusted (a different post) so we *will* be draining, just not sure it will be enough. We could not stop the water flow because although we closed the skimmer input, the main drain appeared to be... well, still draining.

And as far as the ball valves, they were meant to stay - again because we have water coming out of everything - it seemed like it would be a good move (we weren't going to bury) in case we needed to do any work to the pump/filter, then we could turn the water off rather than drain.

Thanks for the input

updated to add: we are putting a "man hole cover" over both areas so we can get into them easily. They will not be "buried". Not sure that makes any difference but wanted to update anyway.

 

[JasonLion]

It will work for a while, probably a couple of years, and then fail. By then you might not remember where they were.

It is possible to glue those fittings even with some water in the pipe, but it takes some advance planning. You need to get the flow rate down, preferably by blocking the other end of the pipe temporarily.