- Feb 28, 2022
- 36
- Pool Size
- 15400
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
I will do my best to outline the points of my overall experience here and keep the story short.
Initial Research
Heater Problems
Initial Research
- I've never had a pool before. Total n00b.
- 4 bids from the area.
- Chose to go with one that is well known in this exact city.
- They've been in this city for 40+ years.
- Lots of great feedback from many others in the neighborhood/community.
- Also good feedback about them from the city inspectors.
- They wanted 10% down with the remainder due upon completion.
- Like most, we were focused on the look of the pool/spa, and were not considering things like plumbing.
- Didn't even consider it.
- There was a specific day when the builder asked us if we had a preference on which end of the pool the spa would go on.
- We stated that we really had no preference.
- Again, didn't know this could/would be an important decision.
- Following his lead, we wound up going with the layout shown in this Google Drawing.
- Some of you might notice immediately what problem this could present.
- The overall build, communication, professionalism, etc. has been great.
- They were here when they said they would be.
- They cleaned up after themselves.
- Everything went according to schedule without any delays.
- The "pool school" they provided left much to be desired.
- New person on their team giving the school.
- This person had been working on Pentair equipment for years, and this builder uses Hayward, so he wasn't clear himself on how everything worked.
- I had some questions about how to setup the timers, how the speed controls worked, etc, and was literally told "you should figure this out on your own, it would be best."
- Okay, fine, I can handle that, but I dived in pretty deep and this led us down a series of concerns.
- Plumbing
- After reading all about calibrating my variable speed pump based on my pool volume, etc.
- I had everything written up for how I wanted to schedule the pump timers to maintain pool temps, etc.
- This when I discovered that the plumbing system they did is a little bit different than most.
- Here is a Google Drawing of the plumbing system and equipment they way they set it up originally.
- There are two separate returns.
- One for "regular" and one for "heater".
- Only the "regular" return goes through the SWG.
- I can either heat the pool OR sanitize it.
- I could split the flow between the primary and secondary returns.
- But then I'm only half as efficient as I should be with heat and sanitation.
- There are two separate returns.
- I looked online at many examples, and I also checked the heater install guide.
- Nothing else I see has 2 separate returns like this.
- Here is a Google Drawing of the plumbing system and equipment they way they set it up originally.
- After reviewing my drawing and questions, they adjusted the plumbing.
- Here is a drawing of the updated (current) plumbing system.
- Now we have lots of options:
- Bypass heater entirely.
- Then go to primary return, secondary reteurn, or split to both.
- Send flow through the heater.
- Then primary, secondary, or split.
- Bypass heater entirely.
- After reading all about calibrating my variable speed pump based on my pool volume, etc.
Heater Problems
- The water flow was not good enough, and the water was backing up in the heater and boiling.
- I have a separate thread about this where it was discussed in more detail.
- Lots of troubleshooting led us to changing the return jets in the spa from a small "spinner" to a standard jet that doesn't pinch the water stream as much.
- The small spinner jets were pinching the water too much, causing slow flow and the heater wasn't able to work with that.
- Replacing the spinners with standard jets seems to have solved this heater problem.
- During this troubleshooting stage, lots of feedback I got online as well as from the plumber himself and the Hayward techs was that the spa should not be on the opposite end of the equipment.
- This is only happening randomly, but there are times when even if the pump is turned OFF, the bubbler is still bubbling a little bit.
- Also, the spa will end up completely drained at times, with all its water now in the pool.
- I can easily fill it back up, but it's not exactly a fun thing to be hassling with.
- I have video of the bubbler going even with the pump off, as well as video showing how the valves were setup when the spa drained.
- Unfortunately, it's random, and it hasn't happened with them here to witness it for themselves.
- The spa has wound up drained 3 times within a couple of weeks, but it doesn't do it every night, and it hasn't done it with them here.
- At this point, the project is "done" in their eyes.
- They adjusted the plumbing for me when I asked.
- They "fixed" the heater problem.
- They cannot reproduce the spa draining or water flowing even when the pump is off while here.
- I still feel I have a bit of an odd setup with this 2-return system.
- For spa jets, I have to use the secondary return, so still not sanitizing while using the spa.
- The way it is now, I can either bypass the heater or not, as asked.
- When I ask them whether I should bypass the heater during summer months when not in use...
- I'm told I should NOT, because we don't want stagnant salt water sitting in the heater.
- But that's exactly what would have been happening had we stuck with the original plumbing design, making that even more confusing and odd that it was done that way to begin with.
- When I ask them whether I should bypass the heater during summer months when not in use...
- I still have this leak happening draining the spa.
- It's not happening when they're here, but I'm video documenting it each time it happens.
- The spa being on the opposite end of the equipment seems to go against the standards.
- This was specifically discussed during build plan.
- We were ignorant to this potential problem.
- Builder decided to go the way we did with the spa on the opposite end.
- Since all the problems happened, builder even made a comment that "I'll never put a spa on the opposite end of the pump again."
- So out of all these years and all these pools, you learned that with mine?
- This was specifically discussed during build plan.
- I still hold 90% of the funds for the project.
- I feel I should be pay them the majority of it, because the majority of the work is complete.
- However, I do not feel comfortable paying 100% of the balance because I still don't feel I have a fully working system that I can trust.
- I never know when that spa is going to be drained and when it's not.
- Twice already I went out there ready to heat it up and use it, only to find it empty.
- As mentioned, they've been great with communication (mostly) and have at least tried to address all my concerns.
- I don't want to pretend like I'm some expert, but the 2-return system and the spa on the opposite end from the pump seem like things that are not standard, and have already caused problems.
- Of course, these things are already done and there really isn't anything we can do about it at this point.
- Which leaves me feeling like I'm paying for a premium pool and ending up with a nice looking pool that has weird functionality.
- Of course, these things are already done and there really isn't anything we can do about it at this point.