pump not getting enough water flow for venture effect?

[gsborys]

Just to clarify: When the pump is on and the jets are removed and the air inlet plug is removed, the air inlet does not gush water but it also does NOT suck in air.
I can see the water just sitting there down the pipe of the air inlet.
If I blow air into the air inlet with my wet dry vac then I get a ton of bubbles out of the jet outlets
As soon as I start adding jets then the water rises until the 5th jet is put in then the water gushes out.
There is nothing in the pipe in the second picture, I think the flash on the camera caused it to look black.
What do you mean without restriction? Isn't the purpose of the jet for the water to get squeezed out of a smaller and smaller orifice to create pressure and get a strong thinner stream of water?

 

[mas985]

What I meant by restriction is if one of the jets has a restriction in the insert and/or the external fitting, then that may prevent all of the jets from working. So one jet can affect all the rest. I was just suggesting that you make sure that the parts you pulled out are not missing anything, clogged or are not fully functional. If the fittings are fine, then the venturi's are not working for some other reason and at this point I am running out of ideas.

But you did not answer my last question:

did you try running the jets with the insert but without the end fitting as shown in the last picture and the top jet?

 

[gsborys]

I tried running the jets with the inserts but not the jets last night. The result for air vent was the same as without insert. The air vent did not gush water nor did it suck air. The insert is just the pipe with female threads in a cup on one end to accept jet nozzle and the other end is male thread to mount to pipe inside spa? Is this what you meant?

 

[mas985]

At this point, there are only two possibilities. There is something wrong with the internal plumbing of the spa (i.e water and air pipes are crossed) but that would mean the spa never worked properly. Or there is something wrong with the spa jet inserts that is preventing the venturi from working properly.

One followup.

You were correct, The flow rate is in spa mode 115gpm@3450rpm with a 23psi at filter with all jets removed and air inlet removed.

What is the flow rate reading and filter PSI with the jets installed and the air inlet closed at 3450 RPM?