Slide Plumbing - Not Enough Flow

[beartoothweb]

I put in a Wild Ride slide late last year, and finally plumbed it for this season. It has a valve that sticks up from the pool deck to turn on/off and adjust the flow.

I basically T-'d off the main 1 1/2" output line from the pump with a 1" line up to the slide valve (the slide itself has a 1" line and valve that came with it, hence the 1" size). I also installed a cut off valve for service ability.

The T for the slide is before the output port on the pool.

What's happening though is that when you turn on the slide valve, despite a great amount of flow and volume, the back pressure on the slide appers to be keeping the water from diverting to the slide, and all of the flow goes to the pool. I made a temporary cap for the output port on the pool, and that forces the water to the slide.

Clearly, I need to do some plumbing work. I could either install a valve on the pool port, or after the T to the slide to shut off that flow, but I'm hoping for a solution that my teens and wife can handle easily (without the risk of accidentally closing all of the valves at one time.)

Any suggestions on how to replumb?

 

[JasonLion]

A standard three way diverter that directs water to either the pool or the slide or both can put put in instead for the T and will be simple enough to use that they should be able to figure it out, especially if you label the pipes.

 

[beartoothweb]

A standard three way diverter that directs water to either the pool or the slide or both can put put in instead for the T and will be simple enough to use that they should be able to figure it out, especially if you label the pipes.

That's kind of what I was thinking. My only concern is that my pool is an AGP with a deck built on top of it. I have an access hole to get to the skimmer, etc, but to pull the 3 way up for easy access, I'll have to add some bends.

Do you think just using 45's so that I can go up, put in the valve, then back down again would limit the amount of flow/pressure loss?