Hooked my chlorinator back-up. Does this look right?

[Guest]

I should have taken a picture before I disconnected it. I am confused about this return line and where the inflow and outflow should go.

How does this look? I could see me having this in reverse, but I am not sure what purpose this return pipe serves.

 

[JasonLion]

That looks right to me.

 

[tgramm]

only thing I see there is you have a heater by-pass line, and when its open your feeder won't work properly, since it depends on the pressure differential of the inlet/outlets of the heater to work.

Also there's no check valve on the heater outlet preventing reverse flow in the heater when the bypass is opened.

 

[Guest]

Based on the picture is my By Pass valve open or closed? When the pool guy closed the pool, he had the valve parallel with the pipe. I turned it back to the 45 degree angle when I opened the pool.

As you might guess, I'm not good with plumbing, so I appreciate the help.

 

[JasonLion]

The bypass valve is a bit more than half way closed. When the handle runs along the pipe it is open. When the handle is at right angles to the pipe it is closed. It needs to be open when you winterize. How you want it when the pool is operating is less clear and depends on why it was put there in the first place. I doubt that it will cause any problems in it's current position, but fully open would effectively turn off the tablet feeder (and the heater).

 

[Guest]

Great. Thank you. This really helps.

 

[Guest]

You know, the more I analyze this, the more I'm not liking it. I see no way where this hook-up won't push rather concentrated chlorine back into my heat exchanger. I replaced a heat exchanger last year for $750, and I'm in no hurry to do that again.

Am I wrong, but even with the valve closed, the chlorine is getting pushed back into the heater?

 

[JasonLion]

Some tablet feeders do feed chlorine in before the heater, though this one does not. If it is working correctly, the FC level is only raised very slightly, so it is not supposed to be a problem in either case.

 

[Aquaman95]

That's a Rainbow model 300C.

There should be an elbow connection under the feeder on the outlet side. This is also a check valve to prevent backflow into the pool system when turned off.

The inlet to the feeder should be after the filter but before the heater and the outlet from the feeder should go after the heater but before any diverter valves.

Here's an owner's manual:

http://www.pentairpool.com/pdfs/300&302 ... ers_UG.pdf

 

[Guest]

This really helps.

The pool guy that the previous home owner used was putting tricholor pucks in the skimmer basket. This is what we were told by a pool store could have caused the heat exchanger to corrode so quickly. So, I'm a little cautious about getting chlorine too close to the exchanger.

I do believe it has that elbow you're referring to. Thanks again for the info.

 

[Pool Clown]

Regardless of where we all think the Cl enters the plumbing, I think we would all agree this is not the best place to put this type of feeder. I would not want to be responsible for this install. The consistences are too expensive (new exchanger).
The check valve on this unit only stops back flow thru the feeder, it does not stop a back flow of the system plumbing, Which, in some cases, could pull Cl out of the feeder.

 

[JasonLion]

I think we would all agree this is not the best place to put this type of feeder

There are some curious features in the plumbing system (that is a strange way to do a heater bypass), but the tablet feeder in particular is correctly installed according to its directions. I am no fan of tablet feeders, and recommend not using them, but if you do want a tablet feeder, this is a perfectly acceptable unit and it is installed correctly (at least as far as we can tell from the photo).

 

[Pool Clown]

Call me crazy, but I think thats a spa bypass first and, well, I think the plumber got the heater included by default. The heater has two internal by-passes to start with, so i don't think heater by pass was the intent with this particular by-pass. Perhaps a by-product of the design.

I mean no disrespect to the plumber here, I like to have fun sometimes with others plumbing design, as others have fun with mine.

 

[Guest]

I think I've read enough here, to not feel comfortable using this, especially after the problems I went through with staining after my last heat exchanger broke. Finally got the pool looking perfect, so I'm NOT going to mess with this. I'll buy some trichlor shock or stablizer to keep the CYA up between 30 and 40.

Now, I may be dealing with a pump problem which Posted on another thread. So why tempt fate anymore than I have to?