Waterfall / Pump / Heater issues

[CFrey2013]

We recently purchased a house and became pool owners for the first time.
This spring we had landscaping done in the backyard.
We had a natural rock waterfall installed and now that it is finished the water just trickles out of the system and it doesnt really look like a waterfall.
The pool is 14X28 X4.5 with one outlet thru the filter basket and two inlets into the pool.
The line is 1 1/2 from skimmer to a Hayward 0.75hp pump (Super Pump Model C48J) then thru a Hayward Variflow XL Valve - attached to a Pro Series High Rate Sand Filter.
Connected to a Hayward Gas Heater - Model 250FDN
The output of heater goes through a Zodiac Clearwater LM2-15 module and then immediately after that the landscapers put in a TEE and the line can return to the pool or it heads to the waterfall. There is no valve to shut off the return to the pool - only a valve to shut off
The line to the pool is 1 1/2" flex line
The line to the waterfall starts at a simple ball valve and 1 1/2" line then changes to 2" flex line to a manifold with a tee in the middle from the pump and two Tee's on either side equally spaced.
The manifold is 1 1/2" and then immediately off the manifold the lines (4 of them) are necked down to 1 inch. Each of the four lines has a simple ball valve.

SO here are the issues.
1 - the pressure climbs at the vari-flow to about 13 psi and then the heater shuts off - showing LO on the readout. when you direct the line to waste for a minute or to rinse and then back to flow the pressure drops to around 10 and the LO readout disappears and the heater can restart.
2 - when you open the valve on the waterfall side - the heater also reads LO
3 - when the valve is on at the waterfall - the water just trickles out and over the edge. Not even close to a cascading look.

I had a company come in and pressure test the lines and they found no problems.

What is causing my pressure problem and my heater problem?
And why am I not getting good flow at the waterfall?
Is this a pump sizing problem?
Is it a plugged line somewhere (caused by all the recent landscaping work completed and the sand/mortar that fell into pool?

Thanks for the help

 

[harleysilo]

Some pictures of all of this would be helpful

SO there are 4 1" lines going to the waterfall?

 

[ps0303]

So from what I can tell from reading your post, you do not have a drain in the pool, only a skimmer? You said "The line is 1 1/2 from skimmer to a Hayward 0.75hp pump" Where is the pools drain line?

Also, take a picture of the plumbing on how the heater is hooked up. It almost sounds like the plumbing is maybe backwards. Meaning the pipe that comes out of the filter should be going into the IN on the heater. Maybe it's reversed and someone plumbed the heater backwards. Having high pressure on the filter, 13 PSI isn't that high, should still cause the heater to fire. Unless someone really messed with the pressure switch on the heater for some dumb reason.

 

[CFrey2013]

More INFO
There is ONE line going to the waterfall - that splits into four at a manifold system. That manifold has 4 lines off of it that neck down to 1"
There is NO drain on the bottom of the pool.
I will try to get pictures to add

The heater is hooked up properly. It was running fine before the landscaping and waterfall addition.
During the landscaping work one of the contractors shorted out the electrical to the whole system. This blew fuses on the pump and also caused problems on the circuit board of the salt system.
Could this electrical issue have caused pressure switch issues on the heater?

 

[ps0303]

Well they could have caused issues with the heater do to the electrical short.

Pictures when you can.

If there is no feed from the waterfall to the pump, but only a return line to the waterfall after the pump, I don't see how adding additional piping after the heater would cause it to not work properly. It's the pressure from the pump, thru the filter , to the heater that matters. So if you shut off the waterfall feature all together, close the valve to it, does the heater work? What is the flow in the pool like? If you put your hand over one of the outlet jets in the pool, do you feel water flow?

That electrical short would be concerning to me. That could have caused an issue on one of the boards inside the heater.

 

[CFrey2013]

Here are some photos

First one (bottom) is of manifold at the waterfall

Second one shows the valve to the waterfall at the Tee

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Sounds like you have low flow through the system. When the filter clogs the pressure rises and the flow rate slows to the point the heater is not happy. We recommend backwashing when the pressure rises 20-25% over the clean pressure. If your clean is 10psi, you should be cleaning it between 12 adn 13psi. Also, 1 minute of backwashing is not usually enough.

I would suggest a substantial backwashing and maybe even inspecting / cleaning the sand bed to eliminate that as the problem:
my-sand-is-channeled-how-to-fix-it-t7626.html#p60821

 

[CFrey2013]

Okay - so the low flow to the waterfall and the heater giving the LO error periodically is from the Sand Filter clogging or channelling???

As for the pressure - I put the water flow to WASTE and then to RINSE and back to normal flow.
The pressure drops to around 5-7 psi and the slowly climbs to around 13 psi.
When the pressure climbs above 10 psi is when the Pool heater is not happy.

SO the solutions is????
A prolonged BACKWASH and then an inspection of the sand filter like the link you showed above???

 

[jblizzle]

How long does it take to climb from 5 to 13psi?

If the clean pressure is 5, you should be cleaning by 7 psi.