Pool Owner Virgin: Can someone help teach me and help me understand?

sarabearTX · May 27, 2024

Hi all! I just relocated from Iowa to Texas for work and am renting an incredible house with an inground pool in Murphy, TX.

I am a straight up pool novice/idiot/beginner/virgin and trying to research is just overwhelming. I have a weekly pool person that comes from my property management company and does the chemicals and checks stuff, but I am struggling major with just understanding how my system operates and what is automatic but what needs my daily or weekly intervention.

Also the owners of my house bought it in February, listed it to rent in March and never lived here. So my property management isn’t sure either what stuff is, and I’m always at work when the guy comes for the weekly cleaning.

So help! Here are some pictures of everything I have and then some information I know and have figured out, but where questions still remain.

1) What controls the spa waterfall? I love the sound of it and I feel like it helps keep my pool clean. But it shuts off randomly and I don’t know why.

2) I figured out the mechanical timer finally with the tripper timers. I think I have it set right to run 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours at night finally and I know to reset it if there’s a power outage. Is there anything I am missing if this runs other things?

3) Does anything look like it means my pool would be heated? I think the freeze stuff just means it won’t freeze in winter, not that there is extra heat somewhere. But I also can’t figure out how to turn the heater big heater box on to just see if I can manually do something.

4) Do spas like this ever get warm or are they more just designed for the bubbles?

5) My pool vacuum isn’t working. It’s a Hayward navigator and I checked the unit (unscrewed bottom, nothing trapped inside) and nothing in the hoses that I can see. Was wondering if the feet are bad and little wings on it are bad and ask my landlord to replace them?

6) My parents are down here visiting and my dad was playing with the valves and somehow drained my entire spa overnight. He has NO idea what valve caused it, and there’s no labels on any of the valves. Anyone able to help me label what everything does?

I know this is a lot but PLEASE HELP!!!!
You all would be my super heroes.
Thank you!!!

DrewLG · May 27, 2024

sarabearTX said:
Anyone able to help me label what everything does?

In your system, a pump pulls water from the pool or spa, then pushes it through a filter and a heater and a saltwater chlorine generator, and returns it to the pool or spa. There are valves on the input side before the pump (Suction valves) and valves on the output side after the heater (Return valves), to adjust where the water comes from and where it goes. I've labeled your photo:

The squat black cylinder with the clear lid is the strainer in front of the pump, and the rest of the assembly behind it is the pump itself. The big barrel-shaped thing on the right is the filter. The big cube on the left is the heater. The larger-diameter cylinder in the pipe between the heater and the valve I've labeled "Return valve" is the saltwater chlorine generator. The little cylinder way up high on the right is an air blower for the spa jets.

Directly in front of the pump, your system has a Suction valve which chooses between pulling water from the spa, and pulling it from a combination of sources in the pool -- on the pool side, there are two additional valves to adjust the suction between (probably) the main drain on the floor of the pool and two skimmers on the pool wall.

After the heater and the chlorine generator, there' s a Return valve that directs the water back to the pool, the spa, or both. And on one side, there's an additional valve that adjusts the water flow between two destinations.

If you look closely at one of the valves, you'll see that opposite the valve handle is a tab that says "OFF". Each valve is at the center of a "T" of three pipes; rotating the OFF tab in front of a pipe will close that pipe while leaving the other two open. Rotating the OFF tab so it's opposite the stem of the "T" -- so it isn't in front of any pipe -- leaves all three pipes open. So in the photo I labeled, your Suction valve is pulling from the pool (because the OFF tab is in front of the spa pipe), and your Return valve is directing water back to both the pool and the spa (because its OFF tab is not in front of any pipe).

Importantly, the valves can also be turned so the OFF tab is in front of the stem of the "T". If you turned either the Suction or Return valve to that position, it would close that pipe and prevent any water from flowing. It's useful to be able to close the pipes for maintenance, etc. But NEVER RUN THE PUMP WITH EITHER VALVE CLOSED.

Typically you'd run the system in one of three modes: Pool (Suction from the pool, Return to the pool), Spa (Suction from the spa, Return to the spa), or Spillway (Suction from the pool, Return to the spa). In the Spillway mode, water flows from the spa to the pool through the gap in the wall of the spa.

There's also a fourth mode, called Drain (Suction from the spa, Return to the pool). That's what your father inadvertently selected while trying to figure out the valves. It's dangerous, because if the spa drains completely, the pump will run dry and overheat, potentially needing repair or replacement -- and pumps are expensive.

I can tell which side of the Suction valve is the pool and which is the spa, because only the pool would have multiple sources. But I can't tell for sure which side of the Return valve is the pool and which is the spa. So you'll have to experiment to see:

With the Suction valve pulling from the pool (as shown in the photo) and the pump running, rotate the Return valve handle to the right (from 12:00 as shown in the photo to 3:00, so the OFF tab is pointing left), and watch the pool and spa to see where the returned water goes. It should be obvious which pipe leads to the pool and which leads to the spa.

Next, with the Return valve handle still pointing to the right, figure out what the additional valve on that side does. In the photo, the valve is directing all the returned water to the vertical pipe directly beneath it, but as you rotate the handle from 9:00 to 12:00 it will direct more and more of the returned water to the other vertical pipe. Do that rotation slowly (and be ready to return the valve to 9:00 if the pump starts to make straining noises or you see the water flow stop or something). See what changes.

Once you've figured that out, label all the pipes with a Sharpie (or with waterproof pool-plumbing stickers you can buy on Amazon) to show Pool Suction, Spa Suction, Pool Return, Spa Return, etc.

sarabearTX · Jun 1, 2024

DrewLG said:
In your system, a pump pulls water from the pool or spa, then pushes it through a filter and a heater and a saltwater chlorine generator, and returns it to the pool or spa. There are valves on the input side before the pump (Suction valves) and valves on the output side after the heater (Return valves), to adjust where the water comes from and where it goes. I've labeled your photo:

View attachment 577741

The squat black cylinder with the clear lid is the strainer in front of the pump, and the rest of the assembly behind it is the pump itself. The big barrel-shaped thing on the right is the filter. The big cube on the left is the heater. The larger-diameter cylinder in the pipe between the heater and the valve I've labeled "Return valve" is the saltwater chlorine generator. The little cylinder way up high on the right is an air blower for the spa jets.

Directly in front of the pump, your system has a Suction valve which chooses between pulling water from the spa, and pulling it from a combination of sources in the pool -- on the pool side, there are two additional valves to adjust the suction between (probably) the main drain on the floor of the pool and two skimmers on the pool wall.

After the heater and the chlorine generator, there' s a Return valve that directs the water back to the pool, the spa, or both. And on one side, there's an additional valve that adjusts the water flow between two destinations.

If you look closely at one of the valves, you'll see that opposite the valve handle is a tab that says "OFF". Each valve is at the center of a "T" of three pipes; rotating the OFF tab in front of a pipe will close that pipe while leaving the other two open. Rotating the OFF tab so it's opposite the stem of the "T" -- so it isn't in front of any pipe -- leaves all three pipes open. So in the photo I labeled, your Suction valve is pulling from the pool (because the OFF tab is in front of the spa pipe), and your Return valve is directing water back to both the pool and the spa (because its OFF tab is not in front of any pipe).

Importantly, the valves can also be turned so the OFF tab is in front of the stem of the "T". If you turned either the Suction or Return valve to that position, it would close that pipe and prevent any water from flowing. It's useful to be able to close the pipes for maintenance, etc. But NEVER RUN THE PUMP WITH EITHER VALVE CLOSED.

Typically you'd run the system in one of three modes: Pool (Suction from the pool, Return to the pool), Spa (Suction from the spa, Return to the spa), or Spillway (Suction from the pool, Return to the spa). In the Spillway mode, water flows from the spa to the pool through the gap in the wall of the spa.

There's also a fourth mode, called Drain (Suction from the spa, Return to the pool). That's what your father inadvertently selected while trying to figure out the valves. It's dangerous, because if the spa drains completely, the pump will run dry and overheat, potentially needing repair or replacement -- and pumps are expensive.

I can tell which side of the Suction valve is the pool and which is the spa, because only the pool would have multiple sources. But I can't tell for sure which side of the Return valve is the pool and which is the spa. So you'll have to experiment to see:

With the Suction valve pulling from the pool (as shown in the photo) and the pump running, rotate the Return valve handle to the right (from 12:00 as shown in the photo to 3:00, so the OFF tab is pointing left), and watch the pool and spa to see where the returned water goes. It should be obvious which pipe leads to the pool and which leads to the spa.

Next, with the Return valve handle still pointing to the right, figure out what the additional valve on that side does. In the photo, the valve is directing all the returned water to the vertical pipe directly beneath it, but as you rotate the handle from 9:00 to 12:00 it will direct more and more of the returned water to the other vertical pipe. Do that rotation slowly (and be ready to return the valve to 9:00 if the pump starts to make straining noises or you see the water flow stop or something). See what changes.

Once you've figured that out, label all the pipes with a Sharpie (or with waterproof pool-plumbing stickers you can buy on Amazon) to show Pool Suction, Spa Suction, Pool Return, Spa Return, etc.

Omg thank you so much for this super thorough help! I spent some of this evening now playing with the valves and I’m not noticing ANY different in how the pool runs when I change the direction of the return valve and watch for impact in the pool or spa.

The pump is on and making noise and can be powered off and on. But nothing I adjust is making something I can see be able to tell water is moving either in the pool or the spa. I assume I’d see impacts in the little jets along the side?

I also noticed a super weird smell coming from inside in my primary bathroom after a major storm this week and just realized I bet these could be related with a plumbing problem somewhere as the pool is also now not staying clean nor pulling water into the skimmer like it was when I first moved in a couple weeks ago. I checked the skimmer for any big debris and have noticed it’s just full of stagnant water.

I reached out to my landlord a week ago for assistance after my first post and they have yet to reply (as we had a major storm this week and major flooding in the area) so I think I’m going to hire my own person.

Question though, is it okay to just completely shut my pool pump off until I get somewhere here to look at? And any places I can try to troubleshoot cleaning a clogged pool line myself? Or should I just wait for a professional?

DrewLG · Jun 2, 2024

sarabearTX said:
Question though, is it okay to just completely shut my pool pump off until I get somewhere here to look at? And any places I can try to troubleshoot cleaning a clogged pool line myself? Or should I just wait for a professional?

If the valves are in a different position now than when your original photo was taken, post a photo of them.

And if I were in your position (renting a house with a pool, with no instructions given by the landlord), I'd leave the pump on.

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Pool Owner Virgin: Can someone help teach me and help me understand?

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