Pentair pool—cannot turn off spa

[Cadrmncsp]

Hi there—

I am a novice pool owner and know very little about anything pool. We have a brand new Pentair pool system, and we use the app as well as an installed wall unit to control our system. Last night we attempted to turn on our spa, but were unable to do so. This has happened before, and we have turned off and on the breakers to correct the issue. We tried that last night without success. This morning when our pump schedule turned on, our spa was running. I have turned off and the breakers on both the house and the pool system. I have turned the spa on and off on both the wall unit and the app. When the system reads the pool pump is on, it’s actually the spa running. When I switch it to spa mode, it increases the intensity of the spa jets. Nothing is moving the pump back into the pool, even though our system is showing that it is. I read previous threads about valves and watching them, only I have no idea what those are or how to find them, or even what they should look like when operating properly. Help?

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

You have an Easytouch system or IntelliCenter?

Post pics of your equipment pad.

Check the small toggle switch on the side of the suction and return actuators. It has 3 positions - ON1-OFF-ON2. Confirm it is not OFF and move the switch from one side to the other and see if the valve turns.

Report back and show us pics of what you find.

 

[Cadrmncsp]

Not sure where the return actuators are?

 

[Cadrmncsp]

Welcome to TFP.

You have an Easytouch system or IntelliCenter?

Post pics of your equipment pad.

Check the small toggle switch on the side of the suction and return actuators. It has 3 positions - ON1-OFF-ON2. Confirm it is not OFF and move the switch from one side to the other and see if the valve turns.

Report back and show us pics of what you find.

Welcome to TFP.

You have an Easytouch system or IntelliCenter?

Post pics of your equipment pad.

Check the small toggle switch on the side of the suction and return actuators. It has 3 positions - ON1-OFF-ON2. Confirm it is not OFF and move the switch from one side to the other and see if the valve turns.

Report back and show us pics of what you find.

 

[ajw22]

You have an intelliCenter system.

I labeled your picture below with my best guess of how your system is setup.

You have electronic Intellivalves that are controlled by the display on its top and don't have toggle switches. Download the IntelliValve manual from https://www.pentair.com/content/dam...tomation/intellivalve/intellivalve-manual.pdf and read it to learn how to put it in SERVICE mode and make adjustments to it. Operational directions are also on the IntelliValve cover.


I circled in red your RETURN valve and in orange your SUCTION valve which is stuck under some pipes and hard to see.

Take a pic looking straight down at those two actuators to show what LEDs are lit and the labels on the pipes.

 

[ajw22]

Are there no labels on any of your pipes? It is builder malpractice to not label the pipes.

Do you know which direction is POOL and which direction is SPA?

LED 23/24 indicate the pipe to the right is closed. Is that to the POOL or SPA?

I this your RETURN valve or SUCTION valve?

It looks like the SERVICE LED is lit. Is that so and did you put the valve in SERVICE mode?

The actuator should be in AUTO for the IntelliCenter to control it.

 

[Cadrmncsp]

Wow. You are AMAZING!! I cannot thank you enough for your help. Both of the actuators were in service mode (don’t know why), so I got them switched over to auto and all is working normally now. Could not have figured this out without your help. THANK YOU!!

Ps—nothing is labeled I didn’t even know it was supposed to be until this thread. That’s disappointing—thanks for letting us know!

 

[ajw22]

Demand that whoever installed your new system come back and label all pipes with their function, POOL or SPA, and arrows showing flow direction. Every valve should also be labeled with its function.

While I have your ear, does your spa spillover always run when in POOL mode?

That causes aeration which causes your pH to rapidly rise.

You can turn off the spa spillover valve and use the SPILLWAY mode on your IntelliCenter to refresh your spa twice a day for about 20 minutes.