Need some of your plumbing mojo

[spillmar]

I have a plumber coming in this weekend to walk me through the equipment setup and the pad.

I have little experience with this type of work and was hoping someone knowledgeable could help me understand what to look for with regard to pumps, filter, heater, booster pump, blower, diverter valves, ball valves, check valves, actuators, etc. - particularly placement and design.

I have attached a layout of the pool features

Any help appreciated !!!!!!!

 

[JasonLion]

The main things to watch for are to make sure every valve is labeled, you know which way to turn the handle to turn each valve on or off, or whatever it does, how to operate the main valve (if there is one), how to clean/backwash the filter, and where the emergency shut off switch is. With that much stuff going on, good labeling is especially important.

 

[spillmar]

Thanks Jason - What type of valves do you recommend and which should be placed where - ball valve, etc.. I am concerned that the plumber may cut corners.

For example the line out to the waterfall should have ball valves to regulate pressure to each waterfall so that they are uniform in the arc going out toward the pool. Things like that.

Best Regards

 

[cya_sux]

Thanks Jason - What type of valves do you recommend and which should be placed where - ball valve, etc.. I am concerned that the plumber may cut corners.

For example the line out to the waterfall should have ball valves to regulate pressure to each waterfall so that they are uniform in the arc going out toward the pool. Things like that.

Best Regards

Ball valves are fine as long as they are not the cheap white ones with red handles that you buy at home depot. I find Pentair valves to be better than Jandy. Whatever you do, avoid gate valves though.

I'm sure someone smarter than me will correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't suction lines, like the skimmers in that pic, supposed to be looped like a return line would be? Otherwise, I believe one skimmer will have stronger suction than the other because they are different distances from the pump.

Edit: You might also think about painting the pipes around the pump for easier identification. Stickers and Sharpe's eventually wear off. Consider blue for suction, orange for pressure, red for hot water, green for waste water, etc.

 

[JasonLion]

No, you don't loop suction lines. Usually you have a valve on each one so they can be adjusted.

On a complex setup like this one, there should be a good quality ball valve (common) or a higher end valve (rare) on nearly every line so it can be individually adjusted. There should also be high end three way valves selecting between main drain and skimmer, between all pool suctions and spa suction, between all pool returns and spa return, and also to select water features if they are on the main pump. Typically the main drain does not get a ball valve, since the three way skimmers vs suction can serve the same purpose. Depending on the spa complexity, often the spa lines likewise do not get ball valves.

High end valves are typically a Jandy never lube or the Pentair or Hayward equivalents.

High end plumbing is an art. A good job will have straight lines with relatively few bends and uniform pipe spacing. Everything should be grouped together by function, pool suction lines all together, pool return lines all together, and so on. You should have easy access to all valves and pump strainer baskets as well as things like heater control panels. Any wiring, for example to the valve actuators, should be clean and tied down to pipes whenever possible.

 

[spillmar]

Thanks much Cya and Jason for the advice. This will give me something to watch out for. If you think of anything else I should look out for, please let me know.

 

[CraigMW]

Another thing to look for would be repairability. Our pool equipment appears to have been replaced about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, whoever did the plumbing failed to leave enough space on the PVC to easily replace the main filter pump. This means I'll probably have to redo much of the plumbing because of this. Why? Because there is no space left to be able to splice into the vacuum side of the pump, meaning I'll need at least three new Jandy valves, two new check valves, etc, just to replace the pump. To get around this, the pool guy could have used threaded junctions on either side of the pump, but was too cheap to do so. This would have saved me a major headache.

 

[spillmar]

Thanks Craig, I went ahead and put the threaded junction, added about $150 to cost, but hey better safe than sorry.

Thanks Jason, I took your tip and purchased about 6 Jandy never lubes. A picture of the plumbing at the pad is now posted in my pool build thread.