Help with valve positions

[LCotts]

Hi All,

So glad I found this site and its great wealth of information.

I have been having issues with the waterfall / spillover in my spa not working and I have a pool guy that normally sorts things out but he has been away so I wanted to see if I could get it working myself before the spa turns green.

Below is the current status of valves. I made one change myself on the spa drain valve coming in to the pump. I opened it to filter the water back in to the pool to get some movement for it. I will close this valve in a moment.



Couple of things you cannot see in the picture is the time clock for the pump. The solar control panel and the booster for the spa jets. If needed I can post these later. Can someone tell me what positions the valves should be in for normal day to day operation so the spa waterfall spills in to the pool and all the water turns over correctly?

Many thanks in advance

Lee

 

[jblizzle]

From what I can see. The valve in the upper right if the picture determines how much flow goes back to the pool/spa. Adjust it so you have the amount of overflow you want.

Likely turn the handle CCW by 45+ degrees.

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

 

[LCotts]

From what I can see. The valve in the upper right if the picture determines how much flow goes back to the pool/spa. Adjust it so you have the amount of overflow you want.

Likely turn the handle CCW by 45+ degrees.

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

Ok, thanks. Just making sure I have everything as right in my head as I can. The top right valve is set in a way where the pipe coming out to the top of the picture is the SPA and the pipe to the left is for the pool / chlorine. (I think there was a very faint label stating SPA). So if I move that 45 degrees CCW that would reduce flow to the Spa rather than increase right?

Then towards the bottom. The valve marked Spa drain I now have this set so OFF is pointing towards the top of the picture (again marked spa) so I assume that means the spa drain is closed off. If I have this valve set to the middle so it is spa and pool main drain the spa empties into the pool quite quickly (not sure if this is normal or not).

Finally the valve marked cleaner is set so off is pointing to the left of the picture (blocking off the cleaner).

The PSI reading at the filter is 20. Not sure what HP the pump is though. The flow to the spa seems very weak. I only get a trickle from the waterfall unless I set the top valve to block flow to the pool / chlorine...

Thanks again

 

[jblizzle]

I think everything you said agrees with what I think. Usually for spill over spas you do not have any suction from the spa as it is hard to set to ensure that you do not drain the spa. You could pull a little from the spa as long as you ensure you are returning more and still have spill over.

What is the pressure when the filter is clean? When was the last time you cleaned it?

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

 

[LCotts]

Not sure as I have someone that normally maintains the system so he cleans the filters etc.

I have just noticed though that there are three nozzles at the back of the spa. One of them seems to be sucking water from the spa. There are tw drains at the bottom of the spa. I have set the input to the pump to be pool only so not sure why there would be suction at the spa?

 

[jblizzle]

So you closed the spa suction with the valve labeled "Spa Drain" correct? If so then there should not be any suction from the spa. There also should not be any suction from a wall jet in the spa as those are on the pressure/return side correct? Any suction would come from the floor.

Is there a valve on the vertical pipe between the upper right valve and the "chlorine" pipe? Actually that may be linked to the spa return for the spillover. So you could close the spa return completely and use the obscured pipe/valve to set how much overflow you get.

 

[LCotts]

That's what is confusing me. As far as I can tell the valves for suction are the ones to the right of the pump and I have the spa set to OFF so it should only be pulling from the pool.

If I toggle the return valve to send everything to the SPA and nothing to the pool then I get a decent flow on overflow waterfall but one of the jets sucks rather than blows. If I set it even part way towards pool the sucking stops and the waterfall turns in to trickle.



This is all with the solar off. Solar on seems to drop the flow slighlty more so no movement at all from waterfall.

There is no valve on the vertical pipe. There is a see through flow indicate on both of those verticals but that's about it.

 

[jblizzle]

You are you sure there is suction from the wall and not return flow? I don't want to sound like I doubt you, but that really does not make any sense to me.

If you put the return to the spa, do you get flow out of that nozzle? And then when the spa return is closed you feel suction from the same place?

 

[LCotts]

I know. It's driving me insane.

First configuration (all Spa return, all Pool suction)



Waterfall / overspill working as expected. Water coming from 2 of the back 3 outlets and definite suction from the one I marked on earlier image. I am talking put my hand close to the port and it gets sucked towards it, not like a vacuum cleaner but noticeable enough. No water coming from any of the pool returns.

Second configuration (all Pool return, all Pool suction)



Waterfall / overspill no longer working. No water coming from any spa outlets. No suction either. Water coming from pool returns.

Image of Spa floor with the 2 drains...



Scratching my head lots...

 

[LCotts]

I found someone else via a Google search that had suction on one of their returns in their spa too. Someone said to them that the fitting could have been put in upside down??