Hi, I'm looking at the best way to winterize my SJ35 while keeping the pump running through the winter. The manufacturer suggested I purchase their winter cap for $70 (with shipping), which seems like a ton for a simple plastic cap. Has anyone else come up with a more affordable method for winterizing these units? I don't suppose the threading and size on the cap is any sort of standard size that a third party PVC cap would fit?
Alternate to official "winter cap" for Circupool SJ35?
- Thread starter popechild
- Start date
Make your own dummy pipe and bring the whole unit indoors, not just the guts. You need two unions and a small length of pipe
If it’s like the RJ series, the unions weren’t something I could find at the hardware store. Maybe they can be ordered from somewhere if you can find the thread size.
I thought about that, but the way this is plumbed I'd still need two of their custom unions, plus 2 elbows, and the turns would be in a pretty small space that would make getting the length of the cuts right a challenge. Not impossible, but enough hassle on top of still needing to buy two of their unions (if they even offer that side of the unions as standalone parts that could be plumbed into standard piping) that it probably becomes too much of a pain. Unless I'm missing something? I don't want to get into trying to re-plumb the pipes leading to/from the current elbows to add standard unions, even thought that would make it easier to use a dummy stretch, because there's just not enough room in that part of the plumbing to easily fit in two more unions.
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Maybe search for a dead one on eBay or the like and use it as a dummy cell?
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,747
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
You could also install a regular pvc union on each of the pipe runs further back, make your own “dummy” plumbing & remove the 90’s & cell all together. It would probably be nice to have a union near that valve anyway.
Yeah, unfortunately I don't really have room without some significant modifications. Just outside the left edge of the picture is a 45-degree elbow, which would mean I could fit one on that side but it would be tight and getting the placement precise enough that it wouldn't throw off the connections to the SWG unions would be tricky. On the right side it's even harder. Where the arrow is pointing is actually after a T's that's partially cut off at the edge of the picture, which starts a series of T's to all the return lines, so they're zero room as configured on that side. Otherwise, yes, that would be the theoretical way to do it.
It's a good idea. I don't see any sign that any used ones, broken or otherwise, have come up on ebay when looking through past results, and I'm guessing it'd be hard to get lower than the $70 the cap will cost unfortunately. Looking like I might be stuck having to shell out the dough for the official cap.
It's much easier to swallow when the alternatives require far more aggravation and most of, if not even more than, the cap cost.
You considered the alternatives, and promptly rejected them for good reason. Feel good about the cap.
Every fall when you screw it on, think, 'MAN that was easy'