Re-plumbing question

[SteveK]

I'm finishing up a pad re-plumb for a new pump, filter, and to upsize the pad to 2" pipes.

The last thing I need to do is hook up the pressure-side to the existing lines going back to the pool. I'd like to use consecutive 2" T's to route to each of the 3 return lines which will each have a Jandy 2-way valve installed. But there is enough space (separation) between the returns to make that happen.

I can make the connection with a 2 inch "cross" -- a 4-way connector that would have 1 inlet and 3 outlets (1 to each return line).

Is there any reason for not using a 4-way "cross" connector -- too much head loss, turbluence, back-pressure, etc, etc or any other drawbacks?

Thanks in advance!
SteveK

 

[jblizzle]

I can not see how the cross would be much more head loss as you will likely have the same number of turns as you would if you used a bunch of Tees.

If you only have 1 return open at a time, 2 of the 3 legs of the crosses will effectively be closed so it would seem similar to a 90 turn for the water.
If you have all of them open, the straight through return may get a little more flow than the others.

 

[SteveK]

Thanks for the response Jason.

In playing around with different connectors & layouts (dry fit of course)...I can accomplish the routing using T's. The first T branches off to 1 return line; the second output of the first T goes to another T which will service the final 2 returns. BUT -- I can do this if the second T is arranged so that 1 output goes down to 1 return and the other output goes UP (and over to the final return).

Would there be any issue with arranging a T in the vertical plane as opposed to the horizontal plane? The output that goes UP actually has to flow upwards to meet the water valve for my Paramount bottom returns/corner returns.

Thanks again for any insights on the above.

 

[jblizzle]

Does not really matter the orientation of the T.
Ideally you just want as few turns as possible, but increasing the pipe size to 2" made a larger difference than a few extra turns.

 

[SteveK]

Thanks again Jason! I've been careful to be frugal with the number of 90-degree turns in order to keep them to the barest minimum.

 

[jblizzle]

I just went through the same process myself 2 weeks ago ... eliminated five 90 degree turns and a heater (that appears to be rusting) from the poorly planned setup to reduce head loss. Unfortunately, I can not be certain how much it helped as I had to replace the pump at the same time so my pressures are way different.