Spa draining into the pool

[Guest]

I've searched past threads, and am having trouble figuring this one out as well, for my situation at least. I have a waterfall spa setup (spa 2' higher or so than the pool water level).

I run pool-suction and pool-return, and have a 1/2" aux line that goes from pool-return to spa-return to push water into the pool. It has a check valve + a manual on-off valve (as sort of a redudancy).

I moved to a new pump which I run at a lower speed, so I assume I have less flow to overflow back into the spa. Now I notice the water level drops overnight and during pumping does not quickly regain lost ground.

I turned the manual on-off valve off to bypass the check valve flow, pumped from pool --> spa (to start at a high level), and still get quite an overnight drop in the water level of the spa.

Does that leave my grey three-way jandy valves (on the suction and return) as possible candidates as cause for this trouble? I opened them up this morning before I made this post to inspect, and the diverters 'looked' OK. The O-rings seemed fine (except one of the small O-rings on one had been split). This is the o-ring that comes between the handle and the diverter (not the outer o-ring). Not sure how to tell if the diverter itself is shot. The square rings seemed to have a little height to them, and the diverters are a black color. Not sure if they are never-lube retrofits or the originals.

Ideas?

 

[JasonLion]

It sounds like you are on the right track.

There are two major possibilities, either one of those valves is leaking, allowing spa water back into the pool, or the spa has a leak. The valves are usually fairly easy to check, so look there first. If the spa is leaking and you are constantly filling it from the pool you should see a drop in the pool water level beyond normal evaporation.

 

[Guest]

I replaced the diverter on the suction with a jandy neverlube positive valve, and we'll see what happens. The new diverter looked identical to the old ... So I'm not sure what to make of this.

By the way, I peeked in with the spa level full, and at the suction jandy valve it overflows out of the spa suction. The spa return (much higher) jandy valve had no water coming in. So if its anything, I think it'd be the suction.

Is it possible that the neverlube diverter was Ok and there is actually something wrong with the grey housing itself?

Here is a picture of the neverlube diverter that came out of the suction jandy valve.

 

[carolina pool]

If you posted a picture of the entire equipment set up it would easier to figure out. The diverter looks fine, it would be very unusual for the housing to fail and the small oring shouldn't be enough water to fit you description.

 

[Guest]

Here are some pics of the complete setup. (as you see, I moved over to that new Intelliflo and threw a saltwater system on)

 

[Guest]

I checked this morning, and the spa level is full. I turned the on-off manual valve to open (to allow the check valve to 'perform' as it should) after I did the replacement yesterday. Only issue is that the pump has been running for about 1/2 hr this morning (before I checked it), so if it did lose level it already replaced lost ground. I have a feeling it worked though, as the level didn't drop at all in the few hours I watched it last night.

Will follow up over the next few days, but if that is it, it is very telling that there doesn't need to be much damage to a diverter for it to lose seal.

Now to figure out how a small amount of air is getting into my system.


-- Also, anyone have any recommendations for this: for both my jandy valves, many of the 8 screws in each have lost a threading to go into in the valve itself (guess the plastic just degraded). Any product for this? I'm not leaking water though.

 

[lborne]

-- Also, anyone have any recommendations for this: for both my jandy valves, many of the 8 screws in each have lost a threading to go into in the valve itself (guess the plastic just degraded). Any product for this? I'm not leaking water though.

1. If there is room, you could drill a through hole and use a bolt and nut. It can be a smaller bolt size than the current screw.

2. Pour an epoxy into the hole. Once cured, drill a small hole and let the screw self tap into the epoxy. You'll have to find a soft cast type epoxy as most things sold at the big box stores will be too brittle when cured.

3. Not sure if there is room, but you could use a thin wall threaded insert.

4. A slightly larger (maybe metric) screw.