Newbie With Function Questions

[lockflow]

Hello everyone! I am both a new board member and a new pool owner. I was hoping you could help me understand my system. I know that I have a Pentair Titan CM Filter, Hayward Pump and Solar Heating. I opened up the filter and saw that some of the DE filter fingers had tears. The replacements should be arriving today. I have read the procedures for backwashing but I just wanted to be clear on how and when to use the valves, most importantly, the valve at the bottom of the picture (numbered 1).
[attachment=0:ktfx0p1v]Pool Layout.jpg[/attachment:ktfx0p1v]

I believe valve 2 is for the solar and is electronic and doesnt need to be touched. Is that right?

Valve 3 is the backwash valve.

 

[lockflow]

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Valve 1 controls your suction, so it will switch between a skimmer and drain, or maybe between 2 skimmers.

 

[lockflow]

ok, I only have 1 skimmer.

 

[lockflow]

So when do I ever need to turn the dials?

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Well, first thing is to figure out which pipe goes where. Right now it's set to only pull from the left side. If you look in the top of the skimmer when you get the pump running, and you see water flowing in, you know that pipe is the skimmer. Then turn it to the other side and see what, if anything, happens.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Most people run the skimmer MD valve set to where it draws most of the flow from the skimmer and some from the MD (main drain). If you're happy with how clean your pool stays and you don't have issues with circulation, you can leave it like it is. If you have a suction vacuum you'll most likely have to run it completely on skimmer (which I assume is how it's set now).

MITS beat me to it again!

 

[lockflow]

It says "Arnie" on a label done by a previous owner on one side. Does that provide any insight? The other side says "Skimmer".

 

[Bama Rambler]

That may be a pet name for a cleaner and it may be a dedicated vacuum port. The other side is obvious. It's to the skimmer.

The surest way to tell is to switch it to the other side and see where the water is pulling from. Look for a hole in the side of the pool that it could be attached to.

 

[lockflow]

Excellent will do. For now I am stuck staring out the window waiting for the Fedex guy to drive up. Thank you guys so much for your help!!!

 

[waste]

Welcome to TFP!!

Unfortunately with your 'push/ pull' valve ( !), your options on backwashing are severely limited.

Please do find out what the other suction port is! (I suspect that Bama is right in that it's a wall port for a robotic vacuum). Please tell us about how you plan to vacuum the pool, we can provide a little advice on correctly doing it.

Please let us know if replacing the DE grids gives you any trouble.

 

[lockflow]

Thanks for the warm welcome! Upon close inspection I think I do see a wall port on the side of the pool wall. The thing that got me into this whole situation of opening my filter, seeing the filter fingers were torn etc. was that I had assumed the skimmer was my only option to do pool vacuuming. The filter was operating at 14 PSI when the vacuum was not used, but as soon as connected the vacuum to my skimmer port my PSI on the filter would drop to 0, or just above 0 and stay there until I turned off the pump and removed the hose. The suction appeared to be good but I was concerned I was doing something wrong.

A pool vacuum was included with the pool. It is a Hayward Ultra Vac. I also have a plaster vacuum and nylon brush.

Any advice on how to do it correctly is greatly appreciated!

 

[carlscan26]

The ultravac used to be made by a company called arneson or something like that. Hayward bought them out. Arnie was a nickname for the cleaner - I had an 15 year old one in my pool when we moved in and the same marking on the pipe.

 

[lockflow]

I got humpty dumpty (DE filter) put all back together again. The starting PSI with DE was 11 and it appears to be running well. I lost suction a few times while using the hayward vacuum, but I believe it was due to loose hose connections. I was able to find workable valve angle that allowed me to keep pressure at about 6 on the filter PSI gauge as well as have a good suction on the vacuum by adjusting the angle of valve # 1 (which changes between the skimmer and the wall vacuum. When I had the valved opened fully to the wall vacuum inlet the pressure would still drop to 0 PSI.

question 1):
I have a Pentair solar heating system and I tried switching it on after a few hours to test functionality. As i believe it should have, when I turned it "on" the valve rotated automatically allowing water to flow from the solar system's pipes, however the PSI on the pool filter increased to 20 PSI and lots of bubbles started coming out. Do I need to do anything before starting the solar system so I don't harm the filter? The electronic valve is #2 in the top picture.

Question 2)I have three Returns(?Is this what they are called?) from the filter that return water to the pool. The one closest to the filter has a strong jet of water coming out. Returns 2 and 3 have a much lighter stream. Should I check anything or be concerned?

Thanks again for your insight!!

 

[carlscan26]

A pressure increase from running the solar is expected. Mark will have to weigh in if the much rise is expected or not. Regardless, that pressure should not harm your filter. As long as the bubbles go away after a few minutes then everything is fine.

You can try putting a smaller return nozzle on the first return and see if that increases the rice at the other two nozzles. Ideally they're all balanced but that requires The ok bing to have been setup in a loop or with each return being the same length of pipe from the pad. There are other tricks that can be employed too. Doesn't seem like those were done or done right on your pool. It's not the end of the world though either.

 

[Melt In The Sun]

The solar pressure doesn't sound like too much to me. It should purge a bunch of air as soon as it comes on, since the panels are designed to drain when they aren't being used. Sounds like yours are working fine

 

[lockflow]

Ok, should the pressure surge and eventually return to the standard PSI or would it remain at the elevated level while the solar was on? Just want to know what to look for. Thank you!!!!!!

 

[Melt In The Sun]

It will stay elevated. You're pushing through a lot more pipe with the solar on!