Filter and Heater Bypass

[mud]

My returns have had bubbles coming out of them and there are large bubbles visible in the lid of my filter pump. My PB installed a jandy valve to allow some of the water exiting the filter pump to bypass the filter and heater and return directly to the pool/spa. Is this normal? I haven't been able to talk to them so maybe they are just trying to figure out where the bubbles are coming from?

 

[Bama Rambler]

If you have bubbles in the pump strainer basket there's a suction side leak somewhere. A very common place is the strainer basket lid. You need to inspect the o-ring and lube it good with silicon pool lube. Another common place is the skimmer weir. Even if it only sticks for a few seconds it'll cause the skimmer to suck air. If the water level isn't quite high enough it'll create a vortex and suck air in. I'd start by checking all those places first.

It's not at all normal to bypass the filter with any water flow. I can't imagine what they were thinking.

 

[eric99gt]

Sorry to thread jack. I'm having similar issues where I've had a ton of turbulence in my pump strainer basket. When I was still using a pool service he mentioned that this was normal for this type of pump. I've been messing around with it and I notice that when I divert water away from the skimmers and to the main drain the turbulence in the pump decreases greatly. I've looked at my weirs and I've even held them down yet the pump still has a ton of turbulence unless I close off the skimmers. Any thoughts?

 

[mas985]

My returns have had bubbles coming out of them and there are large bubbles visible in the lid of my filter pump. My PB installed a jandy valve to allow some of the water exiting the filter pump to bypass the filter and heater and return directly to the pool/spa. Is this normal? I haven't been able to talk to them so maybe they are just trying to figure out where the bubbles are coming from?

When the filter and heater is bypassed, this greatly reduces the head loss in the return side plumbing. You should have also seen a drop in filter pressure. Although flow rates will increase, the downside to this is that the suction side plumbing has not changed so the suction will increase and probably by quite a bit. So things that did not leak before will start leaking and if the suction is high enough, it may be difficult to fully stop all leaks.

 

[mud]

PB says filter + heater are partially bypassed to provide enough flow to spa when in spa mode. Seeing as how I have a CCP520 filter with a flow rate of 150 GPM, filter doesn't need to be bypassed? He says he needs 140 GPM for spa.

Haven't seen any more bubbles in returns and bubbles in filter pump are greatly reduced so PB may have fixed this.

 

[mas985]

The problem is that you might not get 140 GPM if you don't bypass the filter. With that high of a flow rate, you really should have a separate pump for the spa jets.