Mesa Arizona Pool Owner

[bconley7]

Good day all!

I am new to the forum. I am a Mechanical Engineer 8 years out of school so have a fair bit of experience. I am an avid DIYer (do my own house work, car work, pool work, etc.).

I have been trying to sort out my pool plumbing ever since my Hayward pump died 5 months ago. (Long story short is that the motor was fine but had to replace the $500 VFD DIY of course.)

Bought the house with the pool functional but the spa was "as-is" with not much explanation. As of today, 3.5 years after we purchased the house, I have sorted out that the pool and spa skimmers are plumbed into the pump through a Jandy 3 way valve and there is pool return, spa return, and pool aerator return plumbed in on the pressure side.

Looks like both skimmers are tied to the main drains respectively and I am missing the equalizer/float valve in both skimmers.

Yesterday, I cleaned the nasty water out of the spa as it has never been filled/run through the filter since we've owned the home. I am looking to get it on the system though and keep it clean and mosquito free!

There is no heater on the system and there are several pipes at the pool equipment not plumbed in (listed are as found when I started looking into it): The question marks are what I may have determined them to be but I'm still not 100% sure.

• 2.5" Pipe capped - Pool Drain?
• 2" Pipe Open - Waste? (I have a 2" pipe coming up out of my yard)
• 2" Pipe capped - Spa Drain?
• 1.5" Pipe capped - Pool Vacuum Port (Pool Side wall)?
• 1" Pipe Open - Spa Bubbler (found a pipe with holes in it in the bottom of the spa)?

I get the feeling that the previous homeowner replaced the equipment on the cheap and didn't want to set it up correctly. There are 3 extra breakers in the electrical panel next to the equipment, I am guessing two extra pumps and the spa heater originally. I know there was a solar hot water heater on the house that also fed the pool equipment originally.

The sand filter has a push pull valve and it seems like every time I backwash, no matter how long I run, it always ends up sending dirty water back into the pool. I just purchased a multiport to replace the push pull so I can vacuum to waste and rinse after backwashing.

My goal with the existing setup is to plumb everything the way it should be without the heater.

I have been perusing the sticky threads a bit and have found the sand filter cleaning and plumbing sections very helpful.

Any thoughts on the best ways to trace down the rest of the plumbing? I've tried blowing through some piping and tapping on them but can't get air through and couldn't determine from tapping on them.

Thanks! Have a great day!

 

[Texas Splash]

Hello and welcome to the forum! You posted this yesterday, and maybe everyone was a little apprehensive to make guesses about that pretzel situation of PVC you inherited. No worries, you'll get it. Slow process of elimination. You mentioned air and tapping, what about some pressurized water? Maybe a Drain King bladder? Although it's very possible some of those lines are closed from both ends if they weren't used for a while. You might end-up never using some of them as placing a sign on them ... "Historical Landmark Here."

Well, I wanted to give you TFP greeting and let you know to use the forum as much as you need. Post back as much as you like to keep this thread active and visible. Have a nice evening.

 

[bconley7]

Thanks Pat!

I will definitely be looking into the pressurized water method to determine the piping setup!

 

[bconley7]

Update on my piping situation.

• 2.5" Pipe capped - Pool Drain? Spa main drain
• 2" Pipe Open - Waste? (I have a 2" pipe coming up out of my yard) Still don’t know for sure maybe another air inlet for a bubbler in which case I had filled it with water trying to find out where it goes
• 2" Pipe capped - Spa Drain? Not the spa drain but I haven’t figured it out
• 1.5" Pipe capped - Pool Vacuum Port (Pool Side wall)? (2) spa return jets
• 1" Pipe Open - Spa Bubbler (found a pipe with holes in it in the bottom of the spa)?Pool vacuum port plumbed underground inline with aerator (they are close to the same location in the pool)
• the spa return 2” line goes to (4) returns and pulls air in from the 2” pipe in the yard which is about 10 feet from the spa
• Pool skimmer appears to be plumed to the main drain (ran a snake down the non-suction side and it went down a good ways. Pool water is cloudy though so I couldn’t see if it would end up coming out at the main drain or not)
• the spa skimmer is plumbed to the spa drain