Pool is up, old issue arises.. Thoughts?

[SteveTech]

Alright, I got the pool up and running and I am getting to the water next. PH and CC are good for now. I had an issue last year, and my poolmiser would "band-aid" the issue.

So here is the problem, every night when the pool filter ends its cycle, over the 8 hours it is stopped, the water in the spa retreats to the level in the picture and stops. above the jets. it does not go any lower than this. In turn when the filter kicks on in the AM, water from the pool fills the spa and goes thru the spill ways. Also the level in the pool also drops just a little as seen in the picture and stops, goes no further, again above the jets. when this cycle repeats every day, eventually the water line gets lower and lower and in a number of days, drops below the skimmer. If I have the poolmiser on, it band-aids this and life goes on at the expense of a water bill.

I am starting to wonder if I have a bad seal in the multivalve, as I already changed out the one-way valves in the SPA and heater piping last year. Water is going somewhere and IF it was a piping leak, it would not just STOP at a certain level, but down to the pipe that is broken, so I am thinking it is something else.

Thoughts?

BTW. How does one get rid of the calcium deposits shown in the picture? from the previous owner who ran the pool 24/7

 

[1poolman1]

Alright, I got the pool up and running and I am getting to the water next. PH and CC are good for now. I had an issue last year, and my poolmiser would "band-aid" the issue.

So here is the problem, every night when the pool filter ends its cycle, over the 8 hours it is stopped, the water in the spa retreats to the level in the picture and stops. above the jets. it does not go any lower than this. In turn when the filter kicks on in the AM, water from the pool fills the spa and goes thru the spill ways. Also the level in the pool also drops just a little as seen in the picture and stops, goes no further, again above the jets. when this cycle repeats every day, eventually the water line gets lower and lower and in a number of days, drops below the skimmer. If I have the poolmiser on, it band-aids this and life goes on at the expense of a water bill.

I am starting to wonder if I have a bad seal in the multivalve, as I already changed out the one-way valves in the SPA and heater piping last year. Water is going somewhere and IF it was a piping leak, it would not just STOP at a certain level, but down to the pipe that is broken, so I am thinking it is something else.

Thoughts?

BTW. How does one get rid of the calcium deposits shown in the picture? from the previous owner who ran the pool 24/7

A picture of the plumbing would help with a diagnosis. It could be as simple as a valve not being closed entirely.
It usually takes a process like "sand-blasting" using media like glass beads or crushed walnut shells to remove that type of deposits from pool tile.

 

[SteveTech]

A picture of the plumbing would help with a diagnosis. It could be as simple as a valve not being closed entirely.
It usually takes a process like "sand-blasting" using media like glass beads or crushed walnut shells to remove that type of deposits from pool tile.

Here's the pad. In the config, it runs and stops on daily unless we use the spa.

 

[flynwill]

Most likely the check valve on the SPA return (box on the left pipe in your last picture) is leaking. It's not a style I've seen before but it looks like it should be serviceable.

 

[SteveTech]

I replaced those last year with the hope that was the issue.. I am going to double-check again and make sure they are closed and clean.. The only other thing I can think of is the waterway value on the SPA return, I ordered a valve replacement.. the previous owner did not do ANY preventative maintenance, so..

With that said, the water level drops to the same level as the equipment pad, checked that recently..

 

[SteveTech]

I found a post from a while back from Jim that made me think for a min..

Dennis,

When you run your pool, does your spa water continually overflow back into your pool? This is an issue as the aeration caused by the spillover will cause your pH to continuously increase.

It appears to us that your automated Intake valve (by your pump) and your automated Return valve (by your SWCG) are both mechanically set to allow water to continual flow to your Spa when you are in the Pool mode. This was done so that you Spa always has fresh chlorinated water. This is not required if you have an automation system as you can simply schedule the system to run in the "Spillover" mode a couple of times a day to keep the water fresh and keep the spillover off the rest of the time. (We can help you fix that later if you wish)

I suspect the check valve we are looking for is at the very bottom of the pic with your SWCG in it.. Off the bottom of the picture where we can't see it.

Let us know what you find..

Thanks,

Jim R.

Since my check valves were replaced last year, this post gave me pause as I also have continual PH rising AND the return valve was about 80/20 Spa/pool. I made the actuator adjustment and now the SPA is fully closed in pool mode, and I added a program to run spillover 4 times daily during the pool program. Let's see how this does. If not, I have guts for the waterway valves inbound to replace.

 

[SteveTech]

now I am pretty sure that SPA is a result of the plumbing trying to equalize. while the water was slowly going down in the SPA, after the above fix, I went over to the poolmiser and low and behold, you could hear the water draining in the overflow tube, which shows me that the pool water was rising. Now that the SPA has come down as seen in the above picture, go back to the poolmiser, and no draining sound whatsoever.

I am now drawn to the fact that the seal on the inlet valve is shot or not aligned. Ill be replacing that next week. More to come.