Our First Pool

Thanks for the diagram Roy! (sorry I typed Rob before by accident) By looking at the plans, it looks like this is how it will be plumbed (the water feature pump has automatic valves behind the manual valves to tweak the feature as you say) I believe the 8ft sheer had 2 inputs but I have to look again at the specs. I understand manually adjusting the bubblers, deck jets, and such to the correct height that we want. My doubts came when I thought about what would happen with a single speed pump if we for instance closed all features except the bubblers. Wouldnt the flow be greater since all the other features were shut off causing the bubblers to shoot up way higher? Do the automatic valves allow tweaking the flow or would I have to walk over to the manual valve and close it a little bit to compensate whenever we used less than all features at once?

When I mentioned having a spare pump - I meant that I could un-do the unions and swap it into the pool flow location, not with elaborate plumbing. This way I could repair the pump and my pool would be fully functional (minus the fancy water features). I would imagine that pump would last much longer seeing much less use.

The danger of all this reading is - the more things I see on other pools/spas THE MORE COOL FEATURES I WANT!!!
I was looking into spa plumbing and jets to get an estimate of what I would have and my gpm requiements, and saw all kind of cool jet combinations (like jets for your feet). It looks like other pool/spa owners have heater/filter bypass plumbed for their spa jets. I dont fully grasp how this would work while still maintaining normal function. I understand how the pool/spa/spillover modes work so maybe its just a modification of this with more auto valves.

Looks like the suction is even more important than the return/jet lines. I guess because the pump can push far more water under pressure in a given diameter pipe vs suction on same size lines. I did see that the XF pump allows either 2.5" or 3" inlet/outlet. I would imagine opting for 3" plumbing especially for suction side would yield greater performance.

Maybe I am just overthinking all this pool stuff, but I see this as something that we will do once and would like it done as good as possible. Changing out a pump later is not a big deal, but plumbing/jets/water features are probably forever (at least without a chipping hammer)

I appreciate the input!!

Dang YOU ROY!!!!! That looks awesome!! I WANT SOME!

WHAT IS ALL THAT FOR??? Why so many pipes? I must know more!

Roy
Went to the architect today to make final changes and it looks like my existing sub panel at 80amps may not pass with a third pump. I already have 2 pumps a sprinkler pump heat pump and all the lights/automation. I need to make this work with that intellifloxf pump!

He says he can pull 2 2.5” drains from spa so the pump is not starved for water. I even thought to ask him to run 2 3” drains but that may be overkill. I did extend the sun bench area a little wider so that I can add water feature to fire bowls. I am hoping this will please my wife enough to remove the deck laminar jets (which I think Kim said were problematic).

Looks like tomorrow they start digging. Will post some photos of the mess.

I think the heat pump is what puts me over the limit @50amps. I will also have one circuit for the gazebo in the future. The crew is still working and only about half way done. Some hard rock just under the surface.

i cannot post the time lapse because of the size. Let me see if I can post it to google first and link it

KIM ITS HORRIBLE!!!!
I spent the last few hours pressure washing to clean up. The whole side of the house, the driveway, the sidewalk, the street.
IT JUST WENT ON FOREVER!
and we do it again tomorrow. The ground here is extremely dense!!

Lets see if that link works
Changed to YouTube - looks like it plays now
If you look closely, you can see where the operator cuts a coax cable that was actually 1ft outside of the utility easement.
Cable company showed up and fixed it right away (you can see that too).