how to blow the lines

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botanica37

botanica37

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Feb 3, 2009
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Oakton, VA
I tried with the leaf blower today and with a small Shop-Vac (suction only) and it didn't work - not sure why really. We can't figure out how to jerry-rig our compressor. Can someone explain what is the best way to adapt the compressor and if I need to buy certain things??

Thanks for any advice.
 
There are lots of ways. This works for me.

I have a pressure regulator used for spray painting and I set it to about 20 psi. You can also do this at the compressor if it has a built-in regulator. Full compressor pressure of 90 psi.+ is tough to handle with precision and can blow a pump cover or cause other problems.

Easiest hookup is to screw a quick-connect nozzle into your filter pump winterizing drain. Nozzles come in 1/4" and 3/8" which are also the most common sizes for drain plugs. If it happens to be larger, you can get a bushing at the hardware store. Just take your drain plug to the auto parts store to get a match. Put a matching female quik-connect on the end of your air hose and attach to the nozzle you put on the pump. You are good to blow! Leave your filter MPV on Recirc. to do the return side, and put it on Closed to do the suction side.
 
OK, I will try that for the skimmer/filter. How do I adapt the compressor to blow the caretaker valves? I think they are about 2 inch in diameter. I stuck the hose from the Shop vac in there, but it didn't blow out anything...
 
botanica37 said:
OK, I will try that for the skimmer/filter. How do I adapt the compressor to blow the caretaker valves? I think they are about 2 inch in diameter. I stuck the hose from the Shop vac in there, but it didn't blow out anything...
Click to expand...

I don't know anything about in-floor systems, or how to winterize them. That said, enough bushings screwed together will thread that quik-connect male into ANYTHING with a thread. If it is a hole without a thread, then the rubber stopper part from the correct expansion plug plus a air trigger-type nozzle attachment (put the same type quik-connect on that for convenience) will get the job done. I don't know what the pro's do--there may be special adapters but I already had both of the above.
 
It's been 15 years, but what we used to do on Caretaker systems is open the cap of the 'octopus' and blow each of the five lines 1 by 1 using an expandable plug with a 'tank valve' on each until the 'bank' of inflooor heads bubbled - and leave the plug in!

We never had the leaf trapper doohickey, but I've had to deal with a couple of them since then and will gladly tell you what can be done for them, if you have one and will remind me of the pipe sizes. :cool:
 
Be sure to check how powerful your compressor is. Mine is a consumer-grade Craftsman model, and didn't have enough guts to do the returns. Blew the main drain just fine, but took FOREVER to do the returns, since the compressor couldn't keep up with constant demand. I plugged into the pump drain, with a standard 1/2 inch fitting.

Not using the compressor this year. Picked up the biggest Shop-Vac I could. 7 HP should do the trick, I'm hoping
 
I will go pick up a Ridgid WD 1670 shop vac from home depot tonight, it has 6.5 HP, hope it is enough.
There is no easy way to blow it from the pump size? Is is ok to blow from the skimmer through the DE filter, then heater to the returns?
 
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