Lots of Questions!

[RedDirtDiesel]

Hi everyone, this is my first post, so please forgive me if I don't know what I'm doing :-D
We just bought a house in Texas with an in ground pool with attached hot tub. I have no idea what I am doing with the pool. The sellers told us that the pool was 27,500 gallons. I had a friend show me about the valves and how to turn the pump flow to the pool, spa, or both. The thing that I am most concerned with is the automatic cleaner, the sellers left us a Barracuda G3 in pretty rough shape. I need to order a new disc for it as well as the "foot pad." When I looked on the Barracuda website they talked about using a "flow valve" if you used the cleaner directly from the skimmer. Before I read this, I hooked up the cleaner, and it seemed to work without it. Should I get this valve? Or would that be a waste of 50 dollars? Basically I need to know how to use this cleaner, how often and things like that.

With my hot tub the water is around 57 degrees, I have a Raypak electric heater and I let it run for about 4 hours and I gained 2 degrees. Is there something that I need to be doing differently? I turned the valve from pool to spa and all the water feeds the hot tub, but it still pulls from the pool. Will this thing ever get warm? I also have a thing that makes all the bubbles in the hot tub, I was wondering if I turned the pump off and only the aerator on, would I still be heating it without pulling all the cold water from the pool? Please help me, Im such a newbie! lol

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! From what I understand, pools with spill over or other attached spas should be plumbed so that you can turn off the spill over feature and isolate the spa from the pool. That way you can run the heater for the spa without heating the rest of the pool. You do not want to run the heater without the pump turned on. If you can post some pictures of the pool, spa and your equipment pad that will help us figure out how your set up works.

If the Baracuda is able to move all over the pool floor now then I wouldn't worry about the flow valve. You can run it as often as needed to collect leaves and debris off the floor of the pool.

 

[ping]

Welcome to TFP!

First off I will try to answer your heater questions. If you have the valves set to be in spa mode, the water should only be pulling from the spa and staying inside the spa. You should not get any water to flow back into the pool. It reads like you are pulling the cold water from the pool and returning the water back to the spa but, it then flows back into the pool. You need to adjust the valves so the water pulls from the spa and returns the water to the spa and does not spill over to the pool. Your heater then will be able to heat just the spa water much quicker.

The thing that makes all the bubbles in the hot tub is your booster and that supplies the air for your jets to work properly. Keep that running while in spa mode. It isn't causing your water not to heat up.

If you only have the pool and spa combo with no other water features, then the valving might be simple like this: One valve adjusts the suction from the pool and spa. This valve should turn 180 degrees and controls your suction lines from the pool and spa. Your plumbing then routes the water through all of your equipment and then gets valved to return to the pool. There should be one valve that adjusts the flow to return to the pool and/or spa. You should be able to turn the valve to the spa side and it should return the water to only the spa. There is most likely a check valve in the spa return line also and this prevents the water from draining out of the spa. I keep my check valve 1/4 open so I will always have water returning to my spa.

Your G3 cleaner is a suction side cleaner. Depending on how the pool is setup to run this cleaner you can have many options on how it will work in your pool. There might be a dedicated line on the side of your pool that the hose plugs into. If you have one of these ports in your pool it will most likely be located somewhere on the wall about the center of your pool. There will be another valve in your plumbing that you can adjust so that you can control the amount of suction from that line. The other way is the way you tried, the hose plugs into the skimmer. If you have more than one skimmer that brings more adjustments for you to figure out.

I myself am still learning but this might get you started. The others with much more wisdom than I have should be along soon.

 

[RedDirtDiesel]

pool and spa
filter and valves
valve
spa pak
pool and spa

Here are all of the pictures I thought you might be asking for, if you would like anything else please let me know. Based on the two responses already posted, I am in the right place to get my questions answered!

 

[htownjeeper]

Here are all of the pictures I thought you might be asking for, if you would like anything else please let me know. Based on the two responses already posted, I am in the right place to get my questions answered!

I don't know much about spas, but I figured I could help you with the posting of pics. Reply (quote) to my post and you can see how I did it. And, fwiw, I prefer photobucket for image hosting. It seems faster than this site you are using currently. Just my $.02....

 

[JasonLion]

The blue gray valve next to the heater controls where water returns from the pump/filter. In the photo you have it set to return to both the pool and the spa. From it's current position turing it 90 degrees one way will send all of the water to the pool, turning it 90 degrees the other way will send all of the water to the spa. It isn't clear which way is which, but should be simple to figure out experimentally.

The two black valves near the pump control where water comes from, some combination of pool, spa, and cleaner. It isn't obvious which does what, but it should be possible to figure out with a little experimentation.