solar plumbing repair

[ajw22]

I must be able to follow your plumbing completely from your filter output through to the return.

In this picture, pipes disappear to the right.

And none of the pictures show where that black square actuator is .

 

[Mr Glenn]

here are pics of one side of the plumbing. then the pipes turn the corner to the other pics I posted of the rest of the solar plumbing.

 

[ajw22]

Here is the way I understand your setup...

Water flows through your pump and filter and out to the solar diverter in the blue pipe.

At the solar diverter the water is sent directly to the pool returns through the green pipe. And along the way it gets chlorinated by the cell in the pipe.

Or if the SolarTouch controller determines the solar panels can heat the water it moves the valve to send water down the orange pipe to the solar panels.



If I follow the pipes on the wall in this picture it looks like the return water pipe (green) turne the wall.

While the solar feed pipe (orange) goes into the ground.

Are those yellow pipes coming out of the wall suction pipes into the pump?



Now, we follow the pipes around the corner in this picture...

The green pipe contains the chlorinated return water.

The orange pipe contains water to be heated by the solar panels.

I am lost as to where the blue and brown pipes lead.

Or why there is a T in the green pipe,

Or what that manual diverter is for?

Which pipe leads to the pool returns?



The diagram below is a standard solar panel plumbing setup and I used the same colors to correspond to your lines.

The red circled 3-way valve is your solar diverter valve. That either send water straight through to the pool or to the solar panels to be heated.

The unheated or heated solar water connect in a T that feeds the pool returns. The SWG should be placed after the T so that water is chlorinate whether it runs through the solar heater or not.

In summary, you whole setup is janky and I cannot follow the flow. Please explain.

 

[ajw22]

Taking a different view of this makes more sense....

Filtered water comes up the orange pipe.

This diverter is your 3 way valve that controls the solar heat. This valve is where the SolarTouch should be controlling with an actuator.

The brown pipe carries water to the solar panel.

The blue pipe has solar heated water.

At the T, either solar-heated water or un-heated water are carried by the green pipe back to the pool equipment.



Water flows back to the equipment pad on the green pipe and through the SWG.

I cannot understand the birds nest of pipes in the middle as they are a jumble of white pipes to me,

Where is the return pipe leading back to the pool?

That black three-way diverter with the actuator has three ports. I can only see two, and I'm not sure what the three ports connect to.

I still cannot connect all the dots. You have to fill in the blanks.

 

[Mr Glenn]

Hi. So yes I my plumbing is pretty janky. But I moved in 2 years ago, and the pool was built 30+ years ago.
So, I think I have two problems as I am thinking about what you guys are suggesting here and as I look at my setup in the picture.
Problem #1: when I turn on the actuator and turn the valve TO SOLAR, this then closes the valve TO POOL, correct?
if so, then my chlorinator is installed in the wrong spot. If my thinking is correct, then the chlorinator should be along the vertical portion of the pipe after the T going TO POOL. Because I am getting a "no flow" indicator from the chlorinator control box in that situation of TO SOLAR.
Does that sound right?
Problem #2 Then when we go around the corner: We got the red pipe and the orange pipe meet up at the 3-way diverter (my original question of what position to put this valve in). Why would these two runs of pipe need to be connected via a 3-way valve? Maybe this was before the original owner got a automatic diverter down at the pump? But it seems to me that I want to close off the valve toward the BLUE arrow.
Does that seem correct for this NOT SO PERFECT plumbing? I want to preserve a bi-directional flow and not let these two lines bleed into each other via the BLUE pipe?
My other concern is, how do I stop the water from flowing out of the pipes coming to and from my pool if I cut pipes to glue the chlorinator in the correct position? that pipe section is lower the the top level of my pool.

 

[Mr Glenn]

Taking a different view of this makes more sense....

Filtered water comes up the orange pipe.

This diverter is your 3 way valve that controls the solar heat. This valve is where the SolarTouch should be controlling with an actuator.

The brown pipe carries water to the solar panel.

The blue pipe has solar heated water.

At the T, either solar-heated water or un-heated water are carried by the green pipe back to the pool equipment.

View attachment 642240

Water flows back to the equipment pad on the green pipe and through the SWG.

I cannot understand the birds nest of pipes in the middle as they are a jumble of white pipes to me,

Where is the return pipe leading back to the pool?

That black three-way diverter with the actuator has three ports. I can only see two, and I'm not sure what the three ports connect to.

I still cannot connect all the dots. You have to fill in the blanks.

View attachment 642248

I responded to you below ajw22

 

[Mr Glenn]

I responded to you below ajw22

I am pretty sure I got the black diverter at solar in the correct position (closing the port on the right , so water going in doesn't mix with water going out). So I just need feedback on my other two questions. Thanks