Plug return fitting?

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jtech1

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Jul 9, 2009
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All the return fittings I am seeing on youtube and here show 4 pieces... remove outer ring, eyeball comes out... unscrew eyeball housing and you are left with internal threads to screw a winter plug into.

Did my PB screw this up for me? The fittings he installed have an outer right and an eyeball, BUT, whet is left after they are removed is one piece... the fitting the eyeball fits in and the outer ring screws on to.. and it is glued into the PVC pipe... there are no inner threads on it. How does this get winterized? Is my only choice an expansion plug? The day they glued these in, they had them all done in a few minutes and I was pretty ****** that none of them sat flush with the gunite... 1/2 inch gaps on most all of them... and no way to redo it. Some I have seen on youtube actually have another wider flange beyond the first piece that screws off.

What are my options here... for interizing, and for making it look better next spring?
 
Here are two pics. One of the piece left in the pool, and the other of the two pieces I removed. This fitting seems to be glued into an 1-1/2" return pipe. Does this mean the only way to plug this is with a inside fitting plug? What size plug should I use?
 

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1 and 1/8 or 1 and 3/16s plug will fit what you have there, give me a minute and I will measure the plugs I have that I know fit.

You can take a hacksaw blade and cut the slip fits in four places long ways and pry them out, then clean up the inside of the pipe
 
This is a slyvan-anthony type of return. Yes, it's dumb. In fact last year was the first time I've ever come across it for some reason. I was blowing out the lines and the line was leaking air from where the fitting met the pool wall, which meant it wasn't glued into place in my situation. After some very serious though I attempted to remove the fitting to find it's held in place by friction (kinda how a PVC fitting holds onto PVC pipe when dry fitting) I removed it by using 2 flat head screw drivers to apply equal force on the sides of that fitting. it kinda just wiggled out (it's kinda like removed stacked buckets from each other). I was left with a PVC pipe that was easily plugged. If you can get hold of your pool builder and find out if they glued it, that would be really helpful. Hopefully it's not glued into place.
 
Unfortunately, mine are glued. I saw them doing it and before I could stop them they were all done. Not one sitting flush with the wall!

Leak Specialist... were you saying that a 1-1/8 plug will fit inside what I have to plug it? Or, even if it is glued, does the 4 cut method allow me to get it out without messing up the pipe too badly?
 
The blade will scar the pipe a little. The good news is pool pumps run at a fraction of the pipes rated strength, so as long as you are semi careful you will be fine.

Wrap the hacksaw blade with black tape to protect your hands, cut as straight as you can.

Yes the 1 1/8 or a 1 3/16s will fit what you have, I will be back around my truck shortly to get you the measurement, Anderson is your best source for these.
 
Thanks. I assume that plugging the pipe itself will give me a better seal?

I see the Anderson plugs do not look like they are tapered like others I have seen. I am guessing this gives a more secure fit. Is there a good online source for them?

I am not looking forward to cutting out 8 of them! I have extra accessory returns in a couple seat areas...
 

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Ok. I am going to bite the bullet and once I drain the water I am going to cut the fittings out... what is the correct model of Anderson plug for the inside of plain old 1-1/2 pipe? I see they have blue handle type and white handle nylon in all sizes. Worth the cost for blue handle?

And in the spring, what is the bets kind of return fitting for me to use next year?

Thank you very much for your help!
 
jtech1 said:
Ok. I am going to bite the bullet and once I drain the water I am going to cut the fittings out... what is the correct model of Anderson plug for the inside of plain old 1-1/2 pipe? I see they have blue handle type and white handle nylon in all sizes. Worth the cost for blue handle?

And in the spring, what is the bets kind of return fitting for me to use next year?

Thank you very much for your help!
Click to expand...


You are certainly welcome.

Just a plain old 1 1/2 plug will do.

The nylon plugs are not great, but may work for your application just fine.

Always be sure you have a hydrostatic relief valve or a low water table before totally draining a gunite pool.

I have done several leak detections on gunite pools pushed out of the ground by water pressure.

More a problem here now because of all the rain, may not be a factor in your locale.
 
If they are glued into place I personally don't see the benefit of attempting to cut out the fitting. (Unless I'm missing something here?) If it's glued then it will be sealed at that joint. then just use a rubber compression plug. Usually 1.5" pipe is #8 plug but with that fitting installed it may reduce it to #7 or #6 You can buy a bunch of those rubber plugs and they are only a couple bucks anyways.

The white and blue handles mean nothing. In years past all the rubber plugs had white nylon wingnuts and some had brass wingnuts. In recent years they dyed the nylon wingnuts different colors to make it easier to identify a plug. blue is #8 green is #9 , #10 red etc. or whatever
 
Inside the fitting, beyond the eyeball seat, there is a small lip. That is the only part that will be touching the plug, as opposed to the entire length of the rubber plug being seated against the inner wall of a bare pipe. Is that small lip going to give me a reliable seal all winter if I choose not to remove the fitting?

My only other reason for removing the fitting would be to find a new fitting to use next year that will seat flush against the pool wall without gap, and allow easy sealing next winter. What type of fitting should I use?
 
Jtech, the more I think about it the more I think I maybe giving you bad advice regarding cuttin the fittings out.

I may have over simplified the task at hand, and would absolutely hate to not have you fully prepared. I appologize, I'm new at helping with problems over the internet.

Worst case scenario;
The fittings have been welded tight, I mean professionally cleaned then glued their entire circumfrence they can be an absolute bear to deal with.

There can be more to it than just slicing it 4 times and prying it out, I have had to resort to beating the chunks out with chisels and screwdrivers in dire straights before. Then having to sand the interior of the pipe with sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel. This always results in loose bushing fitment, with more creative solutions to get them to stay.

I would contact the pool builder first and see if he will remove the offending fittings first.
 
Thanks! I think I will give one a try and see how it goes... I am 1000% sure that me removing it is going to have a much better result than my PB doing so. There is no doubt in my mind the kid he would send to do it would not know what to do and would rip up the pipe.
 
I've lived with these since 2004 on my A&S pool. A&S winterized it first year with expandable plugs (I let their service company do it the first year for warranty reasons, then fired them.) On mine, #9 plugs work best. I think mine are unglued because I have seen air bubbles escaping when I used to winterize under water. That was tough to get the wet plugs to stick against air pressure in those things so I switched to dropping the water below the returns. It's much easier that way, and it allows me to do a reset on my CYA. I use pucks when I travel and I travel enough that it needs it. My water is free so no big deal as my well is metal free and low Ca.

I never had the thought to try prying them out but I may experiment.
 
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