3 Way Valve Positions

[dcloer]

Hello all,

I'm new here and I must say that this site if fantastic! I've already ditched the granule shock in favor of the liquid bleach! My question is now about the positioning of the valve as shown in the pic below. The left is the feed from the bottom of pool and the right is from the skimmer. I do not understand where the handle needs to be placed to a) 50/50 split from both b) just "drain" c)just skimmer. Is there any reason to change these around? I'm assuming it should be all skimmer when vacuuming. The writing on the valve itself is not legible so any advice you can give would be wonderful.

 

[Pchase]

You want to have some to the main drain when vacuuming or you will get too much suction, especially if you plug it. I would start with about 45 degree and see how much suction you get at the vacuum head and how well it picks up debris. If not enough, close it a little more. If too much open it a bit.

 

[dcloer]

Okay, but where do I position the handle for that? Like, what position. Is it in the picture? All skimmer or drain?

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[Pchase]

I can't see the back side of the valve to see how it is connected to the pump.

 

[dcloer]

Sorry. I'm using pictures that were already on my phone as I'm not at the pool to get better ones. Here's another from the opposite side. There is just a pipe from the back of the valve straight to the pump.

 

[jblizzle]

I don't think that style of 3-way valve allows you to have a mix between to the 2.

That looks like a Hayward 3-way ball valve.

 

[Pchase]

Okay. I'm not real familiar with the valve, but it appears to be a Hayward sp735 4-way valve or something like it. SP735 Complete 1in. Ball Valve 4-way would mean you can modulate flow between port 1 and port 2 or turn off flow from both.

It looks like port 1 is the top (skimmer) and port 2 is the bottom (main drain). So if you turn it to port 1 you should get all skimmer and turn it to port 2 and all main drain and off would be nothing. You should be able to adjust the % by moving between port 1 and port 2.

If that doesn't match up, see if there is a model number on the valve.

 

[dcloer]

That makes sense but as there is no writing on the valve that I can see, where should the handle be pointing to achieve what you are saying?

 

[Pchase]

Here is a picture of the 735 and it looks like you can follow color thickness. It may not be the same valve, but may give a clue. Straight up is 50/50 (half red/half blue). The 11-12 o-clock position is off (fattest section of black), and about 7-8 o-clock (fattest section of blue) is full port 2 or the main drain. I can't tell where the red (port 1 is the thickest) but would guess 3-4 o-clock. You may also get a 50/50 at the 6 o-clock.

 

[dcloer]

Awesome! That is exactly what I needed!

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[jblizzle]

There are a few valves that look like this (SP0730) That do not allow the mixing. Just beware ...