Proper Plumbing of Pump Inputs and Valves

[happyheathen]

Excuse me if this is the wrong forum for this, but this is my best guess.

My IG gunnite has a single drain and a single skimmer. There is a connected spa with it's own drain and return jets.

From reading the posts here (and briefly touched in another thread), the skimmer sump has two holes in the bottom - one is the line to the pump, the other is the only outlet for the floor drain.
The only valve for the suction side selects the pool or the spa. The only valve on the return also selects pool or spa (can cross-pump if desired - send pool water to spa or spa water to pool.

I was expecting separate lines for the drain and skimmer, with a selection valve to chose which was connected to the pump.

Is my setup (which does have the advantage of supplying the pump even if the water falls below the skimmer intake or the floor drain is blocked (no suction entrapment)) common?

Or do most pools have a valve to run either the skimmer or the drain?

Now for the Biggie:

Does the fact that the suction is accessible only from a 1 1/2" un-threaded hole in the bottom of the skimmer sump preclude the use of suction cleaners?


This rig has a 3/4 hp booster on 1" hose (looks like high-pressure garden hose) feeding a 1 1/2" or 2" female pvc fitting a foot or so below the water line. I have had enough trouble with the main pump not to want to mess with this under-whelming setup.
(pipe reducers everywhere, then a 1" feeding a much larger port is not impressing me as brilliant engineering).

 

[jblizzle]

Sounds like a pretty common setup. Do you have a float diverter that sits on the 2 holes under the skimmer basket?

I am not sure how most suction cleaners hook up, but I am pretty sure that they do not require being screwed in to the skimmer hole. They either just slide into the hole out have a plate that sits on the skimmer basket I think.

The booster pump and port in the pool is for using a pressure side cleaner. And the smaller plumbing is correct.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short

 

[happyheathen]

Thanks!

No diverter (this house was a foreclosure which sat vacant for 2 1/2 yrs - the skimmer basket and filter cartridge were still present, and there are no indications of anything having been attached to the sump.

I am surprised that this setup (the booster pump was set on a scrap of concrete to raise it to hose length) is proper - I wanted to ignore the presssure cleaners due to budget and fear of opening up that bit of plumbing.

With the concern over suction entrapment (why does a child have to die a horrible death to get a problem addressed?*), are pools still built with the pump plumbed to a single source?


* - a six year old girl had her entire digestive system pulled out when she got too close to a drain in a commercial pool. She didn't last long with only IV feeding.

 

[UnderWaterVanya]

Booster pump is high pressure low volume - it wants a 1" hose. My system is similar only I have two ball valves one for each suction source (main & skimmer). My booster drives a Polaris 380.

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

The booster will push a 280, 380, 3900, Kreepy Krawley (Pentair owned) Legend, an Hayward's Viper and Phantom cleaners.

Anthony and Sylvan may still have the skimmer insert that will allow manual vacuuming. This adapter blocks the drain's port just below the skimmer's bottom, in the line.

Suction side cleaners are out. They won't fit on the adapter properly.

Scott

 

[happyheathen]

Thanks for the endorsements!

I sorta suspected the suction cleaners would have trouble with the skimmer sump connection - unless they have tapered sleeves to turn the hose end into a cork.

Oh well, another toy to add to the list.

I have Osteoarthritis (be glad you don't), and manual cleaning of the pool is not anything I'm going to be doing real often...