New pool owner needs circulation help.

[bigdaddyz71]

I am new to owning a pool. I am having issues with getting the pool to circulate the water to move floating debris to the skimmer. My pool is older and only has two return jets marked by arrows in the picture. Because of the shape of my pool the debris either collects in the cove to the left of the picture or my the steps. I can not seem to get the right jets or adjust them to circulate the debris to get it to the skimmer. Any help is appreciated.

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!

I'll bet you've wished for a return by the steps!

The normal guidance is to try to get circulation around the pool so you get the debris moving parallel to the wall when it goes by the skimmer. That may be difficult for you with the shape of the pool and limited returns.

A few ideas that come to mind:

Smaller return eyeball fittings might give you better flow.

A "T" fitting in the return with an eyeball pointing both ways from the return on the left in your picture might help. The returns are standard 1.5" PVC. May not be attractive though.

There have been a couple of rotating return devices made that might be worth a try. The Circulator is one such device. You can also buy a cap for it that keeps it from making noise as it rotates vertically. I can't at all vouch for it, but it seems like maybe one on the return on the left side of your picture might help.

 

[prs]

Your pool shape and skimmer location are similar to mine, and I have a return in exactly the same position as the right hand one in your photo. Fortunately I have three returns so that made life easier but it still took me months to figure out how to get good circulation. My experience is summed up in post #12 of this thread:

http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/84687-Leaves-bugs-etc-bypass-my-skimmer!!-Why-Please-help!

Start by pointing the right hand jet away from the skimmer so you have clockwise circulation, if that jet points at the skimmer then water will bounce off the walls around the skimmer and defect surface debris away from the skimmer. You may find that a reduced surface flow circulation rate will help water to flow into the area by the steps. The decreased flow helps reduce the amount of water that bounces off the walls and allows the surface flow to follow the walls. You reduce surface flow by angling the return jets below horizontal.

Hope this helps.

 

[mas985]

You might want to try one or two of these. They work pretty well at getting the flow in the correct direction.

http://www.aqua-man.com/row_num.asp?Ic=1769

 

[buzzard302]

Can't help much on the circulation question, but if that's a current picture it's time to SLAM. That water is cloudy!

 

[prs]

You might want to try one or two of these. They work pretty well at getting the flow in the correct direction.

http://www.aqua-man.com/row_num.asp?Ic=1769

Mark, they do look good, I've ordered three but my return pipes are not threaded at the wall. I have to use self aligning fittings that press fit into the pipe. Hopefully these will screw onto one of the press fit fittings currently in my "collection".

I ended up using these:

http://www.infusionpool.com/Product/

but I had to remove the internal insert to reduce flow velocity (for my curved pool walls I found high velocity flow bounced off the walls and took all the debris out into the middle of the pool). Also then had to use epoxy putty to fill in the infusion slots and prevent dead spots to the rear of the jets. The good news is they can be easily adjusted with the pump running.

 

[prs]

bigdaddy, the idea behind the infusion jets I mentioned above is to utilise a venturi effect to pull warmer water from the surface and direct it to the bottom of the pool. However when they are turned horizontal the venturi effect pulls water from behind the jet and definitely improves the rate of circulation. I remember that before I removed the venturi inserts I had water circulating round the pool at a zillion miles an hour!!

You may want to try one of these in your left hand jet and see if it helps pull water out from the area around the steps.