Hot tub draining into pool SOS

[Lilbub]

Hey y’all! We are almost at the end of our pool building journey! Yay! But of course the first hiccup would happen on a Sunday… we have been filling our freshly plastered mini pebble pool since Friday. When it was finally in the middle of the waterline tile we switched it over to the spa to fill up as well. However, once the spa was full I turned off the hose and came back out to check it a couple hours later, and it has drained a couple inches back down the plaster, so I panicked because I don’t want to ruin the new plaster, and turned the hose back on, got it filled back up and thanked my lucky stars there wasn’t a plaster line. Fast forward a couple hours, same thing happened. So I put the hose on a trickle thinking it would help keep it full until I can get ahold of our PB Monday… we’ll, it has keep the spa mostly level with the middle of the waterline tiles but it is also filling our pool somehow. I’m guessing the drains are connected somewhere? Or maybe some of the plumbing? I don’t know, but I also don’t know what to do. If I keep the hose trickling it will eventually overflow the pool, but if I don’t keep it trickling the water in the spa will drop below the waterline tiles. Does anyone know of a fix for this? Or a temporary solution to get us through Monday and I can hopefully get ahold of my PB? I’ve been calling and texting him today, but also recognize it’s a Sunday and totally understand them not responding! Thank you all so much for all your help all the time!

 

[mknauss]

Show us a picture of your equipment pad. The valving for the spa/pool.

 

[needsajet]

There's every chance there's a valve you can close that will stop this from happening. Given that you're just on startup and it can be rectified tomorrow, if it were me, I would close all valves at the equipment pad and see if that works. Another option is to post 3 or 4 pictures of your equipment pad, and we can probably figure out which one to close and/or what posotions they should be in for now.

 

[proavia]

Post a few pictures of your equipment pad from a few different angles.
Chances are a valfe is set incorrectly or the innards of a check valve haven't been installed yet.

 

[Lilbub]

Y’all thank you so so so so much!! Wow!! I’ve attached pics below.

So sorry everything is so messy, we have final cleanup scheduled for Tuesday.

 

[proavia]

Post a few pics from different angles with the entire equipment pad in the picture.

It appears both the suction side and return side valves are open to both the pool and the spa. They need to be set to one or the other....

But we need to see a few wider angle shots to make a recommendation on how to set them.

 

[Lilbub]

Absolutely! Thank you

 

[needsajet]

I'd say there's two you need to close, but there's no way to know without knowing which pipes come from the spa. Are any of the pipes marked by any chance?

Close those two red handled valves to take those out if the equation (red handles at right angle to the flow)

If nothing marked, then try this...
4th image from 1st post with pics: valve closest to bottom of image: loosen the thumbscrew if it's not already loosened, and turn handle to the right.
From your second post with images, 1st image, valve closest to bottom of pic at far left... same loosening of thumbscrew if need be, then turn that handle all the way to the left.
Then try filling spa

Let us know, next step will be to try one valve opposite to what I said, see if it works, then the other one, see if it works, then both opposite, see if it works.

After each change, post a pic similar to the 1st image in your 2nd post, and whether it worked or not.

 

[proavia]

The red handle ball valves appear to be plumbed to the spa jet pump - and can probably be left in their present position as they usually only go to the spa and not the pool.
__________

In post #7, pic #1 -

• 3-way valve on SWG line - turn so handle is pointed to the pipe on the right. This should stop any water flow from the left pipe (spa return pipe).
• 3-way valve on pump suction line (furthest from pump) - turn so handle is pointed to pipe on the right. This should stop any water from the left pipe closest to the valve (spa suction line).
• 3-way valve on pump suction line (closest to pump) - turn so handle is pointed to the left (opposite than it is now).

If that doesn't work, reverse the positions of the first two bullet points.

 

[needsajet]

If that's confusing, go with what Gene (Proavia) suggests above. Cheers.