Circulation with spa and pool

[glider304guider]

I'm in the middle of renovating an IG pool/ spill over spa combination. My question is how do most people have the water recirculating. My thought was you open the suction on the pool valves. Close the returns on the pool. Return the water to the spa so that it spills over. If that is correct wouldn't the water in the spa have a much higher chlorine content than the pool? This pool will be using a SWG to chlorinate.

Thanks
DJ

 

[JasonLion]

Typically you only return a small portion of the water to the spa, with most of the return water going to the pool. Alternatively, you return water to the spa only a small portion of the total pump run time, with the water usually returning to the pool.

If you use the setup as you described, the FC level will be higher in the spa, but not way way higher. The main problem with that setup is that you don't get very good circulation in the pool. The spa spillover doesn't usually get enough water movement in the pool to drive debris into the skimmer or to throughly mix shallow water with deeper water.

 

[Richard320]

What he said.

I have maybe 20% of my return going to the spa. At one time I experimented with the valve settings so I would suck slightly less from the spa, but it just seemed too risky. If my skimmer got clogged, I could suck more than I was returning and end up running the pump dry. Too much going to the spa gets it churning and aerating which drives pH up. It's great when you want to lower TA, but it's not for every day.

 

[glider304guider]

That makes more sense to me now. Thanks for the answers.

DJ