spill over spa question

May 15, 2009
73
We have now had our pool with spill over spa for 6 years now. I pay the company that built it to open and close the pool each year.

Since day 1 the spa return (the opening that puts water into the spa) had the jet taken out as it could not allow enough water into the spa to allow the system to run properly. I questioned it at the time why this would be since the spa is designed to be combined with a pool, but really never received a proper answer. It is no big deal and without the jet it allows a good flow of water.
Each year a different crew shows up to open the pool and this year was no different. The bearing in the main pump screams a bit when you turn it on and I guess the pool guys left the system off after they finished not knowing if it would stop whining. It lasts maybe 5 minutes and then runs smoothly.

I got home and decided to turn the system on and make sure the pump did indeed work properly. Started it up and had to prime it to get the water flow going. Once I got it going, I then wanted to run the spill over to move all the chemicals they put in around well. We have a diverter to either feed the water into the pool or the spa. When I turned the handle to direct it to the spa quite a bit of water started to leak out at that diverter. I saw that the diverter had about 6 screws all around it and started tightening them and wondered if the winter cold had cracked it or maybe the gasket (if there is one) has worn out. After tightening most of the screws it reduced to a drip and I figured I might need to get a new one.

So now I have all the water being diverted to the spa and can't figure out why I am not getting that large flow of water spilling over the side and then thought maybe the intake at the bottom of the pool is blocked by too much leaves and switched to the skimmer but no change..... Now I was thinking that the pump is not working properly and then thought maybe the jets in the spa are turned off and need to be opened all the way...( I knew this could not possibly be the problem, but I will try anything at this point. I opened a few up and still no change...then I noticed that the return in the spa had a jet in it. We have never had one in there for this reason... I guess the pool guys had a spare jet and decided it was missing and put it in. The part I can't figure out is after 6 openings, why did the other 5 crews just ignore that missing jet?

Today I will remove the jet when I get home from work and I can probably be 100% assured that everything will run fine and even that small leak may be fixed.... Just wondering why the MFGer of the spa would have a jet (return) that cant deal with the water flow?
 
In general, there should be three modes that you use: pool only, spa only, and spa spillover.

Pool Only
IN: water comes in to the pump/filter from the pool skimmers and/or main drain
OUT: water goes out from the pump/filter to the pool side and/or bottom returns

Spa Only
IN: water comes in to the pump/filter from the spa drain
OUT: water goes out from the pump/filter to the spa jets (there should be more than one)

Spa Spillover
IN: water comes in to the pump/filter from the pool skimmers and/or main drain
OUT: water goes out from the pump/filter to the spa jets (there should be more than one).
This causes water to overflow the spa and spillover into the pool.

Are your valves set up to operate in these three modes?
Do you have more than one jet or return line in your spa?
 
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