more spa problems

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R

rolexguy

0
Apr 8, 2010
25
I have a older inground spa that was here when we got the house. I was working fairly decent prior to the old pump going out. There was the ocassional 1 or 2 jets sputtering. It has 4 jets, 690 gallons capacity, baker hydomite cartridge filter(100 sq ft), new 1 hp whisperflo, and a capped off blower 2" pipe since it just died also. There is a main drain at bottom, small skimmer 6" opening, and a 3 port ortega diverter valve. So here is the list of problems.
1. All jets turn on with good pressure than sputter and than just a good flo of water from them in that sequence.
2. Filter psi gauge says 24-25 jumps between those two. ( ordered new gasket and put new teflon tape on the gave t and threads
3. Filter fills up with alot of air quick
4. Skimmer has a swirl of water going in( no weir ordered already)
5. I had just put tape on the open blower to protect from debrees in the mean time till i heard hissing and sorta water gurgling sound from in there. I now put a cap on.
Oh i have 1.5 plumbing (spa and pump are 18 feet away) 4 90degree elbows. The blower piping is 2".
 
25 lbs is a lot of pressure. Either the filter is gunked up or too small.

The air in the filter is likely to be from the skimmer not having the weir. The swirl is a whirlpool of suction. It's pulling in air. If you can raise the water level an inch or two, it might stop.

If the jets are connected to the blower line, they may be trying to pull air in. The distance might be too far for a significant volume of air to be drawn in without the assist of the blower.

Scott
 
I did run the pump for a of couple hours when i installed the motor and all was fine. the same as with old pump sputfering etc. I than seen a small leak on the diverter valve and decided to rebuild it. This is when the prsssure issues started. I guess now this makes sense. I did look at the specs on my filter and it is a 40psi max and 100gpm max. What filter would be ideal for this set up? Spa and pump are 18-20 feet distance from each other. There is 4 90 degree elbows for intake and 5 for out. What would be a good blower recommedation also?
 
any other recommendations in the meantime? Since this last post i have cleaned my cartridges with via tsp method, also ran filter with and without the cartridges managed to drop psi 3 points. It now reads 22 psi. I also used a drain king and shop vac and sucked up 1/2" chunk of tile. I plugged all jets, skimmer and drain while doing this. I got a good flo after just with the drain king on. i also changed the seals on the ortega diverter valve. filled up spa and now get a decent water hose like flo from all jets with occasional sputterers which include tiny air bubbles. I have no weir as it will arrive on monday. I am also receiving a new lid gasket for the filter( old baker hydro ultramite) . i get a swirl at skimmer and a vortex like at main drain. What else can i do in the mean time? I dont lose any water which means i have n
o leaks.
 
Update and very fustrated? since the last post i have blown out all of the lines both ways (suction & return) with compressor. i capped each line and filled it with water,shot 25-30 psi of compressed air, used drain king, shop vac and managed to pull out some debrees. Replaced the u cup lid gasket on my baker hydro filter, siliconed all fittings where the meet, installed new weir and still same problem. What should i do now? Im stumped! Can a ortega diverter valve go bad? Can this be the problem? i get occasional sputters form jets. Can filter be to small (old baker hydromite 100 sq ft.)? Can the pump be to big or to small?
 
Yes, i have held a water hose over the lid while pump is running to check if bubbles dissappear. Is my strainer basket supposed to sit flat down as pump is on? My basket floats up if i turn on my pump. Another observation is when i shut down my pump and open my lid water will gurgle in my filter. I never payed attention to that before so dont know if it did all the time or is normal.
 
It is fairly common for water to gurgle when the pump strainer basket is open. Air is coming in through the strainer basket and water can flow through the system. It shouldn't gurgle when the pump is off and everything is left closed up.

Many strainer basket lids flex down a bit as the pressure changes when you turn on the pump.

Yes, the valve could be bad. They don't usually fail, but it can happen. If there was a problem with the pump or filter it is unlikely to cause the symptoms you describe unless something else was also wrong. An oversized pump can transform a very small leak that wasn't causing problems into a larger leak that causes obvious problems. A very large pump can also put extra strain on the plumbing and cause something that was about to fail to fail quickly. But if the plumbing was right to begin with an oversized pump would not cause the symptoms you are seeing. Likewise the filter can't have a whole lot to do with it, since there has to be an air leak somewhere before the pump to cause the filter to fill up with air while the pump is running. If the leak was at the filter it would spray water when the pump was on.
 

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Leaks before the pump draw in air while the pump is running and leak water when the pump is off. Any given size leak can draw in a lot more air than it can leak out water, so a very slow water drip can be a huge air leak.
 
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