New house came with a pool. Learning but need help!

[MargieC]

We bought a house that had a pool and we are trying to learn as much as we can about the equipment. We don't have good pool shops in town, they all seem unwilling to educate.

I have some questions on regular operations of the pool. I've included details on my pool as well.

Pool:

Inground 18 X 36 with 8 foot deep end (we think it's 8 feet?)
Salt system (Intelli Chlor IC40)
Hayward sand filter
AC Smith Centurion Switchless pump

My main question is what position the valves need to be in order to run the pool normally and what positions I need them in to vacuum. There are two valves leading to the pump and three leaving the filter. What position turns on the skimmer/drain and the jets? I've tried playing around with it a little but my husband has heard horror stories of DIY pool maintenance.

I already know from this forum (so much information!) that I need to replace the pressure gauge. It reads the same whether it's on or off.

Thank you!

Margie

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

You'll just need to experiment if no one labelled things for you. Remember to shut the pump off when moving valves. Most likely the two suction valves are skimmer and main drain. But if you have a spa or an automatic vacuum or multiple skimmers, anything's possible. The returns could be plumbed separately, or you could have a pressure-side cleaner port, or a spa, or some popups in the floor.

When you do figure out what is what, label them with a magic marker or something.

For normal operation, usually it's full skimmer and just a little from the main drain and all returns opem.
If there's a spillover spa, partial flow to it and nothing from it.
When vacuuming, full skimmer and no drain, unless that creates too much suction and the vacuum head sticks to the floor. Then you allow some from the main drain.

The pool store guys will end up doing the same thing you're doing, opening and closing valves to see where the water moves, so look at the money you're saving!

If you don't have a test kit, get one. As an aside, the same place you get the kit can also sell you a good quality pressure gauge.