What is this Spigot for?

[snason76]

Hi all,

I'm still relatively new to pool ownership. Can one of you please let me know what this spigot coming out of the pool pump is for? Are there circumstances when I would want and/or need to use it?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Jimrahbe]

76,

The hose bib is used if you want to dump water from your pool.

With the pump running, if you open the valve, pool water will flow out.. It obviously makes sense to attach a garden hose.

Not really needed if you have an overflow port in your pool.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[snason76]

Jim,

Thanks for your quick reply!

What is an overflow port? Is that the drain like thing at the entrance to the skimmer? If so, I do have one of those.

 

[Jimrahbe]

76,

An overflow port keeps the pool water from getting too high, generally when it rains a lot.

There are different types.. Mine is a 2" pipe with a grate over it.. It is just above the normal water line, in the waterline tile.. It the water gets too high it flows into the pipe and out a drain.

Skimmers, generally have a 3/4" hole in the back of the skimmer wall that can be used as an overflow.. Skimmers come with this hole plugged. If used as an overflow, the plug is knocked out by the installers.

I have never see an overflow at the mouth of a skimmer, but it could be anywhere. When it rains real hard for a long time, if your pool does not fill up and overflow the coping, then most likely you have a overflow port somewhere..

Are you talking about a floating weir door that is normally between the mouth of the skimmer and the skimmer basket?? If so, weir doors are what make the skimmer work.. They only let the surface water into the skimmer and this allows them to "skim" the surface water to capture all the floating junk.

Show us a pic...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

There is another, non-obvious, use for the spigot. If your pump runs dry and you can't prime it the normal way because the intake pipe doesn't have enough water, you can attach a female-to-female hose adapter to the spigot and force water into it. This is what my pool builder did after replastering and refilling my pool. Yes, the spigot is on the wrong side of the pump, but it did help with the initial prime just by getting some water in there.

 

[markayash]

There is another, non-obvious, use for the spigot. If your pump runs dry and you can't prime it the normal way because the intake pipe doesn't have enough water, you can attach a female-to-female hose adapter to the spigot and force water into it. This is what my pool builder did after replastering and refilling my pool. Yes, the spigot is on the wrong side of the pump, but it did help with the initial prime just by getting some water in there.

I wondered about doing that, did it work ok?
Only time I need it is when pump and filter are empty

 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

I wondered about doing that, did it work ok?
Only time I need it is when pump and filter are empty

The pump eventually primed. I don't know how much faster it primed with the hose adapter than it would have without it, though. I only needed it that one time after refilling the pool. My pump is below skimmer level, so it never goes empty once the pipes are full.

 

[CrystalRiver]

There is another, non-obvious, use for the spigot. If your pump runs dry and you can't prime it the normal way because the intake pipe doesn't have enough water, you can attach a female-to-female hose adapter to the spigot and force water into it. This is what my pool builder did after replastering and refilling my pool. Yes, the spigot is on the wrong side of the pump, but it did help with the initial prime just by getting some water in there.

Much caution must be used to prevent contaminating the drinking water supply with pool water. There's a reason adapters are not easy to come by.

 

[workedonthousandsofpools]

That hose bib is plumbed in when pool is being built, so the hose bib on the side of your house can be connected to the one on your pump, with a garden hose, to pressurize the pool plumbing for inspection purposes, that is the only reason that it is there.

After the plumbing passes inspection the builder usually just leaves it there, it usually is new enough that it doesn't leak, and goes unnoticed over time when the builder is long gone, until the homeowner is out by his pool equipment one day and goes ..."hey i have a hose bib on my pool plumbing, must be for draining the pool" ....

It was not meant to drain the pool, lower the pool water, or any other reason other than the one time intended use to pressurize the plumbing for inspection, that's it.

but hey , if you think its for draining your pool then ....

 

[markayash]

That hose bib is plumbed in when pool is being built, so the hose bib on the side of your house can be connected to the one on your pump, with a garden hose, to pressurize the pool plumbing for inspection purposes, that is the only reason that it is there.

After the plumbing passes inspection the builder usually just leaves it there, it usually is new enough that it doesn't leak, and goes unnoticed over time when the builder is long gone, until the homeowner is out by his pool equipment one day and goes ..."hey i have a hose bib on my pool plumbing, must be for draining the pool" ....

It was not meant to drain the pool, lower the pool water, or any other reason other than the one time intended use to pressurize the plumbing for inspection, that's it.

but hey , if you think its for draining your pool then ....

I have a cartridge filter so it’s the best way for me to drain it. Used to use the Polaris hose before a robot

 

[Dirk]

That hose bib is plumbed in when pool is being built, so the hose bib on the side of your house can be connected to the one on your pump, with a garden hose, to pressurize the pool plumbing for inspection purposes, that is the only reason that it is there.

After the plumbing passes inspection the builder usually just leaves it there, it usually is new enough that it doesn't leak, and goes unnoticed over time when the builder is long gone, until the homeowner is out by his pool equipment one day and goes ..."hey i have a hose bib on my pool plumbing, must be for draining the pool" ....

It was not meant to drain the pool, lower the pool water, or any other reason other than the one time intended use to pressurize the plumbing for inspection, that's it.

but hey , if you think its for draining your pool then ....

I'll go. That's doesn't sound right, at all. The inspection pressure test is done with air, before any pool pad equipment is even plumbed, sometimes before it is even installed, let alone that hose bib being present. By the time that hose bib is installed and usable, the plumbing system is no longer sealed up, it's open to the pool! So it wouldn't even hold pressure. And even if it did, how would pressurizing a plumbing system with with water reveal anything, especially since you'd be forcing water into a sealed system that would be full of air!? What would it reveal? What is being inspected by "pressurizing" a pool plumbing system with water?

I realize I'm setting myself up for getting spanked with something I know nothing about, but hey, we're all here to learn...

 

[Jimrahbe]

Worked,

Since most all of us here at TFP are pool owners, and not pool builders, it matters little as to why the hose bib was originally installed, only what we can now use it for..

I have a hose bib, and like Dirk, my system was pressure checked with air, before the pipes were ever connected to the equipment at the equipment pad.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[markayash]

I actually installed one when I re plumbed mine last time. Actually comes in handy.

 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

Much caution must be used to prevent contaminating the drinking water supply with pool water. There's a reason adapters are not easy to come by.

Good point. My on-wall hose bibbs have backflow preventers. I believe they are required by law in California. Here's a photo showing the backflow preventer between the bibb and the hose. It's been painted over (previous owner's painters painted over everything) but shouldn't this be good enough to prevent pool water from entering the house water supply?

 

[Dirk]

Good point. My on-wall hose bibbs have backflow preventers. I believe they are required by law in California. Here's a photo showing the backflow preventer between the bibb and the hose. It's been painted over (previous owner's painters painted over everything) but shouldn't this be good enough to prevent pool water from entering the house water supply?

You mean he didn't bother to mask anything!

Theoretically, that back-flow preventer (BFP) should work the way you describe. But its intended use is to keep water from being siphoned into the house, not necessarily to keep pressurized water from being blasted into it. That unit will have some pressure rating beyond which it will fail and let water pass the wrong way. A similar model (Zurn BFP-9) has a maximum working water pressure of 125 PSI, but the spec sheet I got that from didn't describe if that applies to water coming or going. And of course we don't know the rating of your particular BFP.

In a recent thread we were discussing a similar back-flow situation and one of our experts chimed in and explained typical house pressure is higher than typical pool plumbing pressure, which would seem to be a secondary safety layer against a back-flow event. Of course that particular type of BFP can't be tested and so you never really know if it's going to work when you need it to.

That all said, providing a conduit between your pool water and your house water without a testable pressure-rated BFP is a risk (though a small one), and ideally should be avoided if there is a safer way to get the job done.

Is it possible to fill a pump and the associated suction-side plumbing with a hose, either using the pool plumbing's hose bib, or maybe through the skimmer's suction port, fast enough, with the pump off, then removing the hose (or just turning it off) fast enough just before turning on the pump to get it to prime?

My pump has never failed to prime, even when bone dry, so I've never had to try something like that...

 

[1poolman1]

If the equipment is not far from the pool, you can hook a garden hose to that hose bib then use the filter pump to run a "Leaf Master" type cleaner. Usually more pressure that you have a the house hose bib and you're not adding unnecessary water top the pool.