Jandy type valves outlast the cheap ones 5 times over and can be repaired in place. Never need to cut them out. Stagnant water is in ponds. Your pool will have chlorine in it. No worries for a day or two off.
Gratuitous Pool Construction Pics
- Thread starter GaryParr
- Start date
Dont try this at home.....the pics of the moat reminded me of some of the nonsense we do for kids on builds.
Any experience with the Hayward diverters?
Are you kidding? Life Goals!
I swear, all the nonsense I do for my kids just makes me wish I was a kid again.
Yes I deal with Hayward they're fine. Usually pentair is the cheapest but jandy is the most available brand. I like the Hayward actuators better over other brands. Order online they are double priced in pool stores
It dawned on me, as I'm struggling with some cantilever decking issues in another thread, that I never posted any more build pictures here. My bad! I'll have more soon, but in the mean time here is one of a partially-finished pool being enjoyed at the end of last summer shortly before the pool went into hibernation for the winter.
^^^^. Proof that kids don’t need no STINKING patio. 
Nope. We have astroturf remnants we leave on site once water goes in on summer builds. dirty water or not the kids go in fast
When I was last posting about this build, I was being educated on proper diverter values. I learned the lesson and put in some good ones. Have some actuators arriving Friday to put on these.
The one on the left in the picture has the shallow end returns and the jets in the buddy seat. The one on the right goes between the deep end and the water fall feature.
I didn't post any pics of the completed equipment pad last time, so here are a couple of those. We kept the cheep ball valves on the intake side for now... have a bet going with one of the installers on how long those will last.
The one on the left in the picture has the shallow end returns and the jets in the buddy seat. The one on the right goes between the deep end and the water fall feature.
I didn't post any pics of the completed equipment pad last time, so here are a couple of those. We kept the cheep ball valves on the intake side for now... have a bet going with one of the installers on how long those will last.
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I also had the pool opened yesterday so I can get the deck poured soon. Going to leave the water level low for now I think.
So, I've spoken a bit about the waterfall I'm going to put in. Something like a jump platform with a couple spillways going around this part of the deep end.
I'm curious on what people thing about my water flow though. With my VS pump at 100% I'm getting about 35 GPM out of that 1.5" pipe. All of the waterfalls I've looked at so far suggest 1GPM per 1 inch of width. Now, this 35 GPM is only with my main drain on a 2" feeder. Question for the group... how much more do you think I can squeeze out of that waterfall return once the two skimmers are in the system, considering each skimmer is on it's own 2" feeder?
I'm curious on what people thing about my water flow though. With my VS pump at 100% I'm getting about 35 GPM out of that 1.5" pipe. All of the waterfalls I've looked at so far suggest 1GPM per 1 inch of width. Now, this 35 GPM is only with my main drain on a 2" feeder. Question for the group... how much more do you think I can squeeze out of that waterfall return once the two skimmers are in the system, considering each skimmer is on it's own 2" feeder?
It's all about the kids
When you ask how I'm testing my water, do you mean how I'm testing my flow rate for the future water fall? I was timing how long it took to fill that home depot bucket.
Oh, ha! I'm using some cheap test kit right now. Water is too cold for the SWG anyway so it's all about just keeping the basic levels within a reasonable range for the next month or so while deck construction is underway. I'll be ordering a good test kit sometime this month to use going forward.
A reliable, repeatable test kit and following the FC/CYA Levels is the path to a trouble free pool. Check the counter at the bottom of the page. We wouldn’t have 253k+ members of the system wasn’t perfect. And unlike the industry, we adapt as needed to fine tune the standards when needed based on real world results.
A reliable, repeatable test kit and following the FC/CYA Levels is the path to a trouble free pool. Check the counter at the bottom of the page. We wouldn’t have 253k+ members of the system wasn’t perfect. And unlike the industry, we adapt as needed to fine tune the standards when needed based on real world results.
Yup, completely agree. I was using PoolMath last year and will continue to do so this year. Most likely will be getting the TF-100 for the test kit. With the speed stir of course because all the cool kids have the speed stir!
Really hoping someone can weigh in on my GPM question. My thinking is that having a single 2" suction side pipe right now is radically reducing the pump efficiency at higher RPM. With three parallel returns at play, the effective return pipe size (according to my google-foo) is actually larger than the 2" suction side. This would mean, I think, my pump is getting a much higher TDH than it normally would and it's getting that on the wrong (suction) side. When the two skimmers are brought back into the picture I will effectively have about a 3.5" suction side with the same effective 2.something" return side.
All that is to say that I believe I will be able to get a much higher GPM out of that waterfall return than I can right now. My better half is hoping to have three 18" spillways which would require 54 GPM out of that pipe.
But, to add more to this... I'm seeing that the maximum flow rate out of a 1.5" pipe would be 51 GPM at 8 ft/sec. That's close enough to the 54 required I think, but not sure if I'll achieve that.
The lesson I learned here is two fold. I should have insisted my installer put a 2" return to the waterfall and I really should have done the bucket fill test last year before the pool was closed for the winter.
All that is to say that I believe I will be able to get a much higher GPM out of that waterfall return than I can right now. My better half is hoping to have three 18" spillways which would require 54 GPM out of that pipe.
But, to add more to this... I'm seeing that the maximum flow rate out of a 1.5" pipe would be 51 GPM at 8 ft/sec. That's close enough to the 54 required I think, but not sure if I'll achieve that.
The lesson I learned here is two fold. I should have insisted my installer put a 2" return to the waterfall and I really should have done the bucket fill test last year before the pool was closed for the winter.
What VS pump do you have? With a 2" suction you should see more than 35gpm on full speed
It's the Hayward Tristar VS 900. When I ran that 35 GPM test, I still had the shallow end returns open... so the total system was probably moving closer to 70 GPM. Based on my limited understanding of these things, 70 GPM seems reasonable considering that single 2" suction side is severely restricting the pump intake when running at full throttle. There is notecable cavitaion when the pump is getting into higher RPM.
The way the system is designed, the deep end returns/waterfall are on one diverter, and the shallow returns/buddy seat are on another. My thinking was that, due to placement of these things, as long as one item from each A/B pair is running, water is being pushed towards the skimmers to keep the surface cleaning aspect of the system working in a semi-normal manner.
If I absolutely have to, I can put a third diverter in the system to force more to the falls/deep pair and less to the shallow/buddy pair. I don't want to have to do that though... partially because my Omni Hub only has terminals for 2 actuators
I REALLY should have done the bucket test last year before winterizing the pool. My limited (and probably faulty) memory of things is that the return pipe in question had much higher flow rate when I was using it as a fire hose to terrorize my kids. Unfortunately, the "I think I could douse them from about 8 feet away" is not very scientific.
At this point, I may have to just fill the pool so I can test under normal operating conditions. I'll just have to drain some of that again so the coping forms can be attached (assuming we don't do the collar/pre-cast thing) but, eh, water is cheap I suppose.
A single 2" suction point can handle alot of flow, its not a restriction. Majority of older pools have single 1.5" suction lines, doesmt matter so much how many points of suction, in the end the header size is what limits flow. You can likely run 3 18" spillways, you will probably be at full output to get good flow amd would need those isolated to get all the water output from pump. Are we talking about sheer descents or natural rock flows? If the latter it's easily achieved with what you have now