Low pressure in spa returns

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jdlangley1

jdlangley1

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Jan 7, 2019
237
Spring, Tx
Pool Size
14344
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Two post from me in one day - sorry just trying to figure things out on our new build.

Our spa has 6 returns. With air blower off, 4 have great pressure and two are very weak. All 6 have sufficient air supply when blower is on, although I shouldn’t have have to run air blower to get good action from the returns.

I usually turn blower on for a minute and then turn off and the 4 with good pressure bubble like they should.The other two have no action.

I think these two returns have something, maybe plaster, restricting their flow. We did have one spa return clogged with plaster that PB came out to fix a few weeks ago. Seems like these may have a similar issue.

I plan to speak with PB tomorrow, but before doing so, just wanted to see if this is common and what solutions are there to fix it.
 
The most common issue is over shot plaster in the Venturi jet head. They most likely need to be removed and cleaned or replaced. Under sized jet orifices can also cause this, if they weren’t replaced with the same gpm jets.
 
Poolbreh said:
The most common issue is over shot plaster in the Venturi jet head. They most likely need to be removed and cleaned or replaced. Under sized jet orifices can also cause this, if they weren’t replaced with the same gpm jets.
Click to expand...
Do you know if those jet heads unscrew or are the glued to the pipe and this gunite would have to be cut?

I was wondering if I could cap the 4 that work and see if I can send all pressure to the two that are having issue and see if that will blow it out.
 
PB stopped by. The jet heads he pulled out were very tiny. Wish I had taken a pic of them. He removed them using a 15mm socket. The holes were tiny and had a small build up of pvc. He scraped that off but it didn’t really change much. One of the returns bubbles now like the other 4 but there is still the one that will only bubble with blower on. This one is on the same wall as where water enters hot tub. Unfortunately I don’t have a pic of the stub plumbing before gunite to see how that particular return was plumbed. My thought is that maybe it Ts there and that is causing loss of pressure at that return.
 
Poolbreh said:
The most common issue is over shot plaster in the Venturi jet head. They most likely need to be removed and cleaned or replaced. Under sized jet orifices can also cause this, if they weren’t replaced with the same gpm jets.
Click to expand...
I think I found the issue. PVC glue on the ends should not be there. I moved the one without the glue to the return that was giving me issues and that one works fine now and the other one is weak.

Do you know the official name of this piece?
 

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