Spa draining issue

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RodB

RodB

Bronze Supporter
Mar 27, 2021
78
Pennsylvania
Pool Size
26500
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Hello all, I use two separate variable speed pumps one for half my spa and two fountains and the other for half my spa, one other fountain and a water slide. With that said I use JVA’s to control the fountains and slide. While using the slide water gets pulled from my spa by the pump to provide water to the slide thus draining the spa. Is there any suggestion to prevent this from happening? Please see both attached photos.

Thank you in advance!
 

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Rod,

That make no sense.. :scratch: Was it designed to do this, or has something happened and now you have the problem???

I assume the slide is on the pool side and not the spa side. So, kind of obvious that any water sucked from the spa is going to go down the slide and back to the pool..

The only solution is to send more water to the spa then the slide can suck out.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
RodB said:
Hello all, I use two separate variable speed pumps one for half my spa and two fountains and the other for half my spa, one other fountain and a water slide. With that said I use JVA’s to control the fountains and slide. While using the slide water gets pulled from my spa by the pump to provide water to the slide thus draining the spa. Is there any suggestion to prevent this from happening?
Click to expand...

I don't see a pool/spa suction valve in front of the spa pumps. Do they pull water only from the spa?

If so, the second spa pump is pulling from the spa and returning to both the spa and (via the slide) the pool -- so naturally, the spa drains.

To compensate, can you set your main filter pump to pull from the pool and return to the spa? I assume there's a spillover between spa and pool.
 
DrewLG said:
I don't see a pool/spa suction valve in front of the spa pumps. Do they pull water only from the spa?

If so, the second spa pump is pulling from the spa and returning to both the spa and (via the slide) the pool -- so naturally, the spa drains.

To compensate, can you set your main filter pump to pull from the pool and return to the spa? I assume there's a spillover between spa and pool.
Click to expand...
Yes they pull from the spa however the filter pump controls the spa mode in order to use that to return water to the spa I’d have to run the spa which I’d rather not. Thanks for the reply
 
Rod,

I assume that you have a spillover spa...

I also assume that you offset your return valve so that the spa spills over into the pool.

You could adjust the Return valve offset to cause more water to go to the spa or you could just increase your main pump speed to force more water into the spa.

Neither of these options would require you to be in the Spa mode. In the Spa mode, no new water would ever get into the spa, so that would make the issue worse.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Jimrahbe said:
Rod,

That make no sense.. :scratch: Was it designed to do this, or has something happened and now you have the problem???

I assume the slide is on the pool side and not the spa side. So, kind of obvious that any water sucked from the spa is going to go down the slide and back to the pool..

The only solution is to send more water to the spa then the slide can suck out.

Thanks,

Jim R.
Click to expand...
I got it I just need to run spa mode no heat whike using the slide or fountains that way the spa pulls water from the pool. I should have been able to figure this out without a post. Thanks
 
Rod...

In the Spa mode, the spa gets no water from the pool.. So, that will just make the problem worse.

You need to be in the Pool mode with more spillover than normal.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Well back to square one I tried running the filter pump in spa mode without heat in order to return water from the pool to the spa to compensate for the slide pulling water from the spa. The spa still drained I believe it’s because more water in pulled and retuned to the spa. Ugh back to the drawing board. I guess I could have plumbed the slide and fountains through the filter pump however it would limit the control and amount of water needed for the fountains and slide. There has to be an answer.
 
Rod,

The water features should have been plumbed to suck water from the pool and not the spa. This would normally be done using additional floor or wall drains in the pool.

At this point, the best thing to do would be to disconnect your main drain from the pool pump, and connect it to your water feature pump.

Pools do not need main drains to operate well..

Do not try to connect the main drain to both your pool and water feature pumps, as this can cause all types of odd issues.. Each pump needs to have its own isolated water source..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Jimrahbe said:
Rod,

The water features should have been plumbed to suck water from the pool and not the spa. This would normally be done using additional floor or wall drains in the pool.

At this point, the best thing to do would be to disconnect your main drain from the pool pump, and connect it to your water feature pump.

Pools do not need main drains to operate well..

Do not try to connect the main drain to both your pool and water feature pumps, as this can cause all types of odd issues.. Each pump needs to have its own isolated water source..

Thanks,

Jim R.
Click to expand...
Where do I connect the main drain to the water feature pumps can I connect it to both of them?

Thanks
 

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Jimrahbe said:
Rod,

The water features should have been plumbed to suck water from the pool and not the spa. This would normally be done using additional floor or wall drains in the pool.

At this point, the best thing to do would be to disconnect your main drain from the pool pump, and connect it to your water feature pump.

Pools do not need main drains to operate well..

Do not try to connect the main drain to both your pool and water feature pumps, as this can cause all types of odd issues.. Each pump needs to have its own isolated water source..

Thanks,

Jim R.
Click to expand...
See photo
 

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RodB said:
Where do I connect the main drain to the water feature pumps can I connect it to both of them?
Click to expand...

Do you have a clear diagram of your system?

I may be misunderstanding -- the diagram will help with that -- but in your first post you seemed to say that your two "water feature" pumps also pump water through the spa jets. If that's true, I don't think you'll want to draw cold water from the pool's main drain into them.
 
Rod,

You should never connect two different pumps to the same water source...

Please tell me again what each "spa pump" does..

What does the spa pump on the left do, and what does the spa pump on the right do??

With respect to the cold water issue.. My initial thought was one spa pump just for the spa jets and the other "spa pump" would just be used for the water features and would have nothing to do with the spa.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Jimrahbe said:
Rod,

You should never connect two different pumps to the same water source...

Please tell me again what each "spa pump" does..

What does the spa pump on the left do, and what does the spa pump on the right do??

With respect to the cold water issue.. My initial thought was one spa pump just for the spa jets and the other "spa pump" would just be used for the water features and would have nothing to do with the spa.

Thanks,

Jim R.
Click to expand...
The spa pump on the left controls half my spa jets and the two deep end fountains the right spa pump controls the water slide and a sun shelf fountain.

The idea of two spa pumps is I can control the left and right side jets with one and back and bottom jets with the other. I guess I could use JVA’s to control the jets with one pump and the same for features with the other
 
Rod,

For me anyway, what I design in my mind, often never works like I expected it to would... :(

You are kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.. You will have to decide what makes sense to change, and what makes sense to leave as it is.

Sorry,

Jim R.
 
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RodB said:
The spa pump on the left controls half my spa jets and the two deep end fountains the right spa pump controls the water slide and a sun shelf fountain.

The idea of two spa pumps is I can control the left and right side jets with one and back and bottom jets with the other. I guess I could use JVA’s to control the jets with one pump and the same for features with the other
Click to expand...

It may be helpful to think of the pumps not as "controlling" a feature, but as "pumping water from [the pool or spa] to" the feature.

To run the spa jets with your current setup, you need to shut off all three fountains and the slide. To run any of the fountains or the slide, you need to have the main filter pump running in Spillway mode: Pulling water from the pool and returning it to the spa. (There is a spillway from the spa to the pool, right?)

If you want to fix this, my best idea is the same as @Jimrahbe's:
  • Disconnect the pool main drain from the input side of the Filter Pump, and make it the only input to Spa Pump #1.
  • Rearrange the Spa Pump outputs so that Spa Pump #1 (which now pulls only from the pool main drain) returns water to all the fountains and the slide, and Spa Pump #2 (which still pulls from the spa) returns water to all the spa jets.
 
DrewLG said:
It may be helpful to think of the pumps not as "controlling" a feature, but as "pumping water from [the pool or spa] to" the feature.

To run the spa jets with your current setup, you need to shut off all three fountains and the slide. To run any of the fountains or the slide, you need to have the main filter pump running in Spillway mode: Pulling water from the pool and returning it to the spa. (There is a spillway from the spa to the pool, right?)

If you want to fix this, my best idea is the same as @Jimrahbe's:
  • Disconnect the pool main drain from the input side of the Filter Pump, and make it the only input to Spa Pump #1.
  • Rearrange the Spa Pump outputs so that Spa Pump #1 (which now pulls only from the pool main drain) returns water to all the fountains and the slide, and Spa Pump #2 (which still pulls from the spa) returns water to all the spa jets.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestions. I think I like the idea jim suggested use one spa pump to control just the spa and use a jva to switch from one set of jets to the other. Use the other spa pump to control the fountains and slide using JVA’s to switch from fountains and slide. I’m so glad for all your suggestions I’ll follow up with photos again thanks for talking this through with me!
 
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