Pool/Spa Combo - Heater Installation - HELP PLEASE!

[tcornell05]

Hello!

I've just moved in to a house with a beautiful Pool/Spa heater combo, the only issue is of course, it has no heater. Which it seems obvious that at one point it obviously did (or else that would be one useless spa), but there isn't one there anymore. I'll, be asking a few questions and posting a few pictures to correspond. Excuse my ignorance with terminology, this isn't exactly my forte.

To start off, here is an overview of the setup:

Pretty much, there are two lines into the system it seems to be, and I just want some help verifying what you guys think is the line that should go IN to the heater, and which one goes back in to the system.

heres a picture of the line with the hose valve:

Here's a picture of the other exposed line, isn't this typically used for draining?

Here's both:

Here's the overview without the text:

And the gas line:

So to sum everything up. I just want to know which goes in the heater, and which is used as the outtake back into the system. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

You want to insert the heater into the line that comes out of the filter, heads practically right above the pump, and then turns and heads for a valve that splits it into two destinations that go down into the ground. From the look of things that pipe run has already been cut/patched at least twice before.

The outlet at the bottom of the push pull valve right in front of the filter is where backwash water comes out.

There is no easy way to tell what the pipe coming out of the ground with the metal valve on it might be.

 

[tcornell05]

Welcome to TFP!

You want to insert the heater into the line that comes out of the filter, heads practically right above the pump, and then turns and heads for a valve that splits it into two destinations that go down into the ground. From the look of things that pipe run has already been cut/patched at least twice before.

The outlet at the bottom of the push pull valve right in front of the filter is where backwash water comes out.

There is no easy way to tell what the pipe coming out of the ground with the metal valve on it might be.

Thanks for the input! So I'm assuming the best place to make the cut would be right before the elbow?