New pool install, questions about plumbing and self install of solar (diagram incl)

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M

miatawnt2b

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Jan 18, 2016
157
Tucson, AZ
So my builder just handed the pool off, and I have some questions about the plumbing as well as a future self install Helicol project in a couple weeks.



So... My questions are going to revolve around that bypass valve and how it is all plumbed. The builder set the valve labeled bypass halfway between the heater loop and the direct return. I assume with a typical 3 way valve, this means that both are open (note it's plumbed as a left 90, not as a typical 180 as every other valve in the system... don't know why or if it's correct)

Anyhow, I don't possibly see how this can work at all. With both the heater loop and direct return open on that valve, I don't see how any water flows through the heater at all. My limited understanding of fluid dynamics tells me that the pressure on both sides of the heater will be the same, therefore no water (or at the very least minimal water) will flow through the heater.

Can someone please explain? I would understand if the valve had an actuator that turned off the direct return when the heater was on and turned off the heater loop when it wasn't on, but there is not an auto actuator. This is pure manual control on the bypass valve.

Second question. They stubbed the plumbing as shown above for future solar which I will be working on myself in a couple weeks... again, Same question, I don't see at all how this is going to work for the same reasons I expressed above. Can someone please explain?

Thanks everyone!
 
Would not be how I would do it, but it appears to work...

1. With the port on the right side of your valve closed, water can't flow through your heater.

2. With the port on the bottom of your valve closed, water has to flow through your heater

Unfortunately, one of the reasons you might want a bypass would be so you can physically take the heater out of the system and still run the pool, and your current system will not let you do that.

Jim R.
 
I guess I should be more clear. I totally get how this valve can divert all or no water to the heater. I'm good with that. What I don't get is that the startup guy set the 3 way valve in the middle, basically allowing both passages open (it's actually more of a 60/40 split the way he has teh valve set with 60 toward the heater and 40 toward the pool.)

So sure enough it will function this way, as the heater will kick on and heat water.

So I think that for the solar project (just got four 4x20ft Favco panels on craigslist) I'll stick a 3 way valve between the solar stubs with an actuator to the solar control on the intellitouch, a 2" check valve on the inlet (cold) line to the solar panels, and a temp sensor on I think the outlet of the solar (still have to read the pentair manual to see where the solar temp sensor goes)

-J
 
The problem I see is that the solar is stubbed off in parallel with the heater. It needs to be separate from, or in series with, the heater, and return to the main line before the heater.

So in other words, the solar gets split off by its own three-way valve before the three-way valve currently shown for the heater. You set the limit on that valve to meet the solar system's flow rate need, with the remainder continuing on down the return line (as it sounds like you've already figured out for the heater three-way valve).

The solar-heated water returns to the main return line upstream from the three-way valve used for the heater.

After that point, all the flow is headed toward the heater. Assuming that your heater doesn't have it's own built-in bypass, or total flow is beyond what the heater can handle, the next fitting will be the heaters three-way valve, controlled as you've already worked out, sending adequate flow to the heater and the rest bypassed.

So on your picture, it would show a 3-way valve stubbed off to solar as first thing after the filter, and a stub just below it for the solar return.

After the heater, a check valve is appropriate if any chemical injection or SWG is downstream from the heaters.

Other check valves depend on the differences between pool water level, solar panel level, and equipment pad level.
 
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