Spillover Plumbing

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R

rustlerski

0
Mar 6, 2018
16
los angeles, ca
In conjunction with trying to figure out how to make use out of my variable speed pump (post here), I enabled the spillover dip switch on my Aqualink and now have that functional. In looking to run the pump longer hours at lower speed, I'm trying to minimize the time the spillover is active.

However, as I look at my plumbing, it appears that even when the return is set to the pool side, there is a path for the water back to the spa (and spillover) unless I manually close a valve which not only cuts off the path for water back the spa, but also the feed for the wall mounted eyeball circulation nozzles in the pool. See attached.

Did the builder do something weird here? It seems odd that the only way to control the spillover is to abandon those pool eyeball nozzles.

I thought of reversing the flow direction on the check valve, which would work fine in spillover mode as even if some water ended up back in the pool through the nozzles, the suction would be pulling from the pool, so no issue. However, it seems that on spa mode, this would be an issue as suction would only be from the spa and some water would escape back to the pool.

Is there a simple way to turn that check valve in the middle to something else that will actually separate the pool and spa returns so I can turnoff the spillover without losing those circulation nozzles in the process?
 

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Ski,

I'm sure it is just me, but I can't understand the problem... :scratch:

In theory, your plumbing should work like this..

Your Return valve should send 100% of the water back to either the Spa side or the Pool side.. (no spillover yet..)

Right below your Return valve is a pipe with a check valve.. This pipe only allows water to flow from Pool side to the Spa side, due to the check valve.

The manual valve just to the left of the Return valve is used to adjust the water flow through the check valve so you can adjust the amount of spillover.

In your pic, this manual valve appears to have the handle pointed up, which should stop all the water from going through the check valve and back to the spa.

This is exactly what you want, when using the spillway automation mode. In the Pool mode, all the water goes to the pool and in the Spa mode all the water goes to the spa.. In the spillway mode, all the water is sucked from the pool by the Intake valve and it is all sent to the Spa by the Return valve, causing the spa to spillover into the pool.

You would only run the spillway mode for an hour or less about twice a day, just to keep the water in the spa fresh.

You cannot turn the check valve around.. It is there just to keep the spa from draining down when the pump is off.

If something else is not working, then it was plumbed wrong when your system was built.

So... Please tell me what am I missing, because I can't see the problem???

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thanks for the response and I follow everything. I'll try to be a little clearer.

The one issue more specifically is that when that manual valve cuts off the spillover, it's also cutting off the pool wall eye circulation nozzles. Seems odd to me that I can't cut the spillover without also impacting the circulation in the pool.

I've attached another picture that hopefully helps show this.
 

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Yeah, you are missing a valve to shutoff the spillover return line alone.
 
You don’t need that spillover return pipe. You can cut it at both ends and cap it.

Or maybe open up the check valve and see if you can put a plug in the pipe.
 
Ski,

Thanks... The new pic clears up my misunderstanding.. :goodjob:

Your builder did not do you any favors... :(

Some check valves can be replaced by a manual valve using the same valve body.. I am not sure of the one you have..

Might be able to open the check valve and add some closing plugs..

As Allen points out you don't need that whole "make-up line" anymore.. But, if the line is there, then check valve must be working, or plugged.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thank you, Jim. The more I learn about all this, the more questions I have as to why the original builder did certain things (like the mix of hayward and jandy with the aqualink sytem).

It appears to be a Waterway Plastics twist on lid check valve. I'll open it up later today or tomorrow.

Edit: I opened it up and it doesn't appear I can easily plug it from the inside given. I reached out to Waterway to see if they had any ideas.
 

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