San Diego In Ground Pool Build w/ Pictures

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I opened up the skimmer while the pump was off and water intake set to 75% skimmer, 25% main drain. Taking out the basket I found a small white thingamabob underneath that seemed to weigh a modest amount and have a floating valve of some sort in the middle and an adjustable intake opening on the bottom. The only info printed on it was "waterway".

Underneath the waterway were two pipes, each sticking up, and with nothing visible to adjust.

Note that the intake for the waterway does not fit either pipe..it's intake is in the center and the pipes are closer to the edges.

I suppose it might be possible for the waterway to be positioned such that the intake seal could be over one of the pipes but I'm not sure how tight a fit we'd be seeing or how easy it would be to precisely place.
 
K...well, many hours later after testing and researching stuff when I should have been sleeping:
- Improved efficiency of the skimmer by placing the diverter on the bottom of the float valve most of the ways over the secondary inlet (not completely)
- fiddled with the valve at equipment panel and ensured it was totally pushed so that all incoming water is coming from skimmer only
- checked that the wier was seated properly and going up when pump was off
- tested numerous rpm levels via the intellitouch interfaces

now I'm getting a modest, workable, but not great flow through the skimmer at only 1550 rpm.
 
I noticed with the"flaot valve" in the skimmer the flow is reduced. I think its only purpose is so that if the water level drops it will divert the suction to the intakes on the pool wall below the skimmer. I took mine out since I have an auto fill and the water level will never change.
 
Staying up late playing Santa?

1550 is good for filtration. I run mine low most of the day but kick it up a few times throughout the day at higher speed to get good skimming. Since you have a solid cover you probably won't need to worry about skimming much except when you leave it open. You can setup a feature circuit to run the pump at a higher speed and then use that when you have the cover open.

Did you happen to record the watts per rpm and gpm (since you have an intelligible it should give you this) You can plot out the most efficient speeds from that to dial in your run times etc.
 
Bobby1017: The floater serves two roles, to control how much suction goes between the skimmer and the drain that might be underneath (I don't think it does this that well) and also to shutoff the skimmer if air comes in. I'd take it out if I could, especially as I have the main drains coming in via their own pipes, but the main drains are disabled right now in order to ensure the skimmer is running efficiently. I'm considering putting those on an automated valve so that they can be scheduled for at least some run time each day and to make it easy to switch back/forth...but we'll see.

Carlscan: yep, stayed up way too late on xmas eve! The kids had to wait for their dad to wake up to open gifts. The pump runs at 200 watts at 1300rpm, 286 watts at 1550rpm. and ~700 watts at 2200 rpm. I wish I knew the flow rates that corresponded with those rpm levels, but I don't have a flowmeter and even though our design was supposed to come with one, I don't see any near the main equipment. Can one install a permanent flow meter just before the pool returns, and will it last 30 years w/o causing issues or reducing plumbing efficiency much? I'm not sure what flow rate skimmers are supposed to work best at.

I'd really like to learn how to setup feature circuits - I'm actually now considering a 4 part day: 9am-5pm when high speed or noise operations such as heating/solar can run, 6am-8pm pump runs at 1550 rpm to provide modest skimming when high speed stuff isn't going on, 8pm-2am - pump runs at 1000rpm just to keep some minimal circulation in the pool to minimize algae growth/etc, midnight - 6am: pump isn't running and perhaps the DE Filter can get some rest/settle, not sure is the above is all doable/programmable.
 
Matt - check out mas's sticky post on the plumbing list. He has a calculator you plug everything into. Start a new thread for any questions.

What you want do program sounds doable. Figuring out the pentair interface and menu layouts is a pain. once you do it isn't so bad.

I will probably put my float valve at like 90% skimmer and 10% lower drain (or close to that) so it's really just there in case the skimmer gets blocked. I am curious to see how my plumbing efficiency curve changes with the new skimmer.
 
MattM said:
Bobby1017: The floater serves two roles, to control how much suction goes between the skimmer and the drain that might be underneath (I don't think it does this that well) and also to shutoff the skimmer if air comes in. I'd take it out if I could, especially as I have the main drains coming in via their own pipes, but the main drains are disabled right now in order to ensure the skimmer is running efficiently. I'm considering putting those on an automated valve so that they can be scheduled for at least some run time each day and to make it easy to switch back/forth...but we'll see.
Click to expand...

I use the valve at the equip pad to change between skimmer and main, I usuall leave it at approx 60% skimmer and it works well. It would be cool to have the automated one.
 
Interesting, I tried out bobby1017's suggestion and took out the float valve temporarily --- woosh. Equivalent of ~400rpm, skimmer operates at 1500rpm with it out like it does at 1900rpm with it in. I'll speak to the pool builder about it and see what he says.

On the other hand, whenever I enable the main drains at all, skimmer efficiency goes to heck - despite the fact that I think we have 3" pipe going to the skimmer and only 2 or 2.5" going to the drain. Even setting the drains at 20% seems to cut the skimmer efficiency roughly in half.

I'll see if I can get the issues with the heat pump looked at tomorrow and possibly see if the solar guys want to come out and test. However, I really need to understand how my plumbing/pump are working with gpm to rpm conversion to program the solar correctly. I have 3" plumbing for most stuff, but I'm worried that with 550 sq ft of solar, we'll need 55-60gpm, and this could possibly mean 2500+ rpm. Even if I can stomach the energy requirements there (1500 watt+), I'm not sure if the noise will be acceptable. Currently, 2250 rpm is just about pushing what might be acceptable on a sustained basis.
 
Saw a large number of bubbles on the top of the intelliflow pump tonight, and thought they could be a result of the pump not being happy with the cya added the other day....yes, I did mix it with hot water and create a slurry and add it a little at a time which is what the bag recommended. Any issues with the pump could also help explain the skimmer problem I have been looking at.

So, being courageous for the proud owner of a 1 week pool, I read the manual and what's stated here on tfp and shutdown power, released pressure, opened the pump lid, found indeed some white particles on center of the gasket of the pump, cleaned those off, filled the pump with water, returned power with system in service mode, started pump, when water came out of the filter closed the pressure valve...and

All seemed to startup great! About 1/4 the bubbles in the pump as before and I'm hoping those will disappear over time

What I was not expecting and what has me perplexed is that one of the return lines is letting out a modest amount of air bubbles constantly....will monitor to see if it goes away and if other returns are seeing the same. Pool water level seems normal. The only area where I hear noise of any kind is return from the heat pump just before heading to the pool.

Update - made effort #2, even fewer bubbles in the pump lid now, almost zero....but still bubbles in return lines, although half as much as before.

If there is something I'm doing wrong with the restart, I have no idea...I've put the lid in as solidly as possible and tightened firmly. A little dispiriting, but I'll ask the pool builder when he stops by tomorrow assuming he doesn't give me a lecture for trying to maintain the thing on my own.
 
You've done good Matt! Is the swg on yet? It can cause bubbles. Otherwise yeah the pool builder should do some searching.

I have to run my solar at 2600 rpm to get the water up 2 stories and through my 552 sq ft of panels. The solar guy and I played with it for a while - first indicator was going up in speed until no bubbles in the returns indicating that the vacuum breakers were closing. Then he made some temp measurements and stuff. In the end he put it at 2600.

Depending on what temp you want to get to and how much solar is used vs the HP you will run for different amounts of time. In the peak months of summer without the blanket mine was running for 1-2 hours per day to keep the pool at 85. With the blanket in September maybe 4-6 hours but so much affects this - hours of sun, ambient temps, night time lows, desired temp etc.

For the HP what is the speed necessary to maintain the proper flow for it to run?
 

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Another busy pool day -
- got mx8 cleaner up and running, wow...amazing how well it sticks to the walls, goes entirely up and down the deep end walls at 1700rpm. I assume that there is no problem with the mx8 on pebble sheen assuming it's been installed right.
- spoke to pool builder and apparently some of the air issues are simply because we have 3" piping here...at low speeds, the pump simply doesn't have enough water to fill the pipes, at least until it ramps up to higher speed. Also, PB showed some additional ways to bleed air out of the pump. Doesn't look like I was doing anything wrong. When I get a chance, I'll add more sealant to the gasket...which is best Silicone or Teflon?
- We tried to get the heat pump working today, and tried different flow rates but we think there is a wire banging inside that needs to be fixed somehow. Pool builder is going to contact his pentair tech.
- Autofill is way too loud...going to find some foam to put in the lid/cover to hide/mask the noise.
 
Solar up and running, although with a pump speed of 2650. Solar sensor reads 72, pool temp is 52.... I guess it will be on for awhile.

Near end of the heating day: pool temp has gone up 5 degrees, which is probably pretty good for late December.

Greatest regret so far -- heat pump, not only has it been somewhat defective, noisy, and inflexible in space requirements but now with solar on and pump on high speed, the water bypass valve inside is adding another level of annoyance with a real high pitched persistent squeak right on the pool deck. If I was designing all over again, I'd probably skip it. We still haven't found a way to program intellitouch to use it to maintain a min temp while using solar to pursue a max temp.
 
No luck with heat pump yet -- and another thing I don't understand yet...when solar is on and pump is running at 2400rpm (set speed for now), I'm seeing some occasional water drops coming out of the filter pressure gauge even when gauge is reading only 14.5 - I'll see if it goes away.
 
First draft of pool cover + intellichem installed.

To do:
*Finish up a few intellichem wiring and tie it all down
*Move the mixing/flow canister further away from the pump to avoid potential damage from acid leak
*replace the dummy intellichlor with real one
*put the lids with brackets on the cover motor.

Pics!
 

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JamesW: I'm giving the pentair people a few days more to fix whatever is causing the high/banging noise within the heat pump.
MeltInTheSun: Thanks for the idea!

As for heat pump programming, and using it to maintain a min temperature while solar/cover is used to build towards our desired temp, and restricting heat utilization to main daytime hours to minimize environmental noise:
- Pool builder is suggesting we'll put the heat pump onto an aux port of the intellitouch, and then program it like a dummy device to run from 9am-5pm, while having the set threshold set manually on the heat pump to 65-70 (whatever our min pool temp will be)
- Meanwhile intellitouch is set for solar only heating, and a high initial threshold so that heating doesn't begin too earlier in the morning.
- heat pump is not currently on its own valve so it can go on regardless of whether solar is also active.

I just noticed that the pentair screenlogic controller supposedly has some additional features/pages for management of intellichem -- we haven't gotten the screenlogic plugin for the intellitouch yet, but might be tempted too. Until recently, I wasn't aware that there were some features of intellitouch that could only be enabled via the screenlogic interface (such as multiple pump schedules, each with heating either on or off.) We don't have an ipad or iphone here, just android and linux workstation - so the pentair love for Apple Computer products isn't that exciting for us.
 
First swim at 65 degrees!

Kids decided that waiting until February was way toooo long.

We had ~12 kids over on Saturday afternoon for a lego league meeting, and they wanted to just sit and hang their feet in the pool....of course, you guessed it...that wasn't enough...I kept hearing that the water wasn't that cold. The youngest was the bravest and just jumped in...which meant that others had to join him....which meant there needed to be a real swim the following day....followed by kids from the cub scouts den using the pool to sail model boats...best part was just before falling asleep, our youngest said "I swam in our swimming pool...I am going to swim tomorrow."
 

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