Understaning what does what

[SekiM]

Firstly this is my first post to what seems to be a fantastic site. I uploading a photo of my equipment and hope have someone explain to me what each of the valves do and exactly what controls what in the spool/spa, if it would be possible from the picture I have uploaded (I numbered each valve 1-5).
When we bought the house, I had the pool inspected and the Pool inspector guy went through everything with me at the time, but my brain was too busy being excited that I was about to own a house with a pool so it really didnt sink in (and boy how i now regret not listening intently to every single thing he was saying!)

If anybody could help me understand or give a basic idea what each thing does I would appreicate it more than you could imagine, nothing worse than having all that equipment in front of you not knowing exactly what would happen if I decided to turn one (which I am too scared to do). some are quite obvious where they go to and the automatic ones seem to control the spa and the other the drain...I think. Thank you in advance for your time.
Hopefully the picture is clear enough to identify where everything goes.

EDIT: Added additional photo (note the filter is wet as I opened it earlier to check the catridges and that weird green color is because I reduced the quality of the photo so much to make it so I can upload it)

 

[btolley]

Do you have any more pictures from different angles?

 

[btolley]

I will take a shot and someone else with more experience will probably come along and correct me. :?
1 -not sure, what is the white canister to the right of it? Chlorinator or something?
2- this looks like the suction side of the pump, so i think this lets you vary suction between main drain and skimmer
3 -i think this lets controls suction. either from the pool (from valve 2) or the spa
4- this is the return side and its probably the spa, not sure what is in the spa that you would vary
5- this is the return side, guessing the spa is to the left towards valve 4 and the pool is to the right where valve number one gives you a choice between maybe a pool sweep and the chlorinator
So it seems like valve 5 and valve 3 are give you the choice between pool or spa

 

[Terry]

From what I can see, it looks like the bottom valves (2, 3) are your suction lines. I would suspect the left pipe is from your spa, and the right two are your skimmer and main drains. The pipe the wide part of the valve handle is pointed toward is closed off. It looks to me like the spa is currently off (valve 3) and both of the suction lines on the pool are open (valve 2.)

The top valves are your return. I’d guess the left side pipes go back to the spa, the right side to the pool.

Valve 5 controls how much water goes to the pool vs. spa.

I bet the line behind valve 1 returns water to your return jets in the pool, and the line with the pressure gage is for a pressure side cleaner. If I’m correct, you’ll use valve 1 to choose between returning water to your pool or running the cleaner. Currently both lines are open.

Valve 4 allows you to choose which line going to the spa gets water. Do you have a fountain in the spa, or a water feature of some type? If so, one of the lines at valve 4 goes to it, the other to the jets in the spa. The left line is currently closed.

In addition to turning lines on and off you can control the amount of water each line gets by partially opening/closing the lines. For example, valve 5 currently has the majority of the water returning to the pool side lines by partially closing the spa side.

You'll have to experiment a little to determine which line goes where. Valve 2 controls your pool suction, but there's no way to know which line is the main drain and which is the skimmer by looking at the pad, you'll have to turn one off and see if the skimmer is still pulling- if so the open line is your skimmer, the closed is your main drain. Don't be afraid to turn the valves, you might want to turn the pump off when you do it though so you won't have water pressure to overcome and they'll be easier to turn. Loosen the little nut on the top before turning. I've never had automated valves though, so someone else will have to let you know if valves 3 and 5 can be manually turned.

 

[SekiM]

Thank you all for your responses, this is great knowledge and is certainly making a lot of sense. I did actually turn Valve 1 once and noticed the Polaris zoomed off so does seem right that that controls the cleaner (usually moves like a snail). Thank you again, this is invaluable knowledge to have.

 

[davelinde]

You may or may not know this... but it was a key part of unlocking the mystery to my plumbing:

On each of those valves the handle part can fool you a little (at least it did for me). The important part is the small tab (on mine it is embossed with "OFF"). The tab points to the direction that is shut off. If the tab is not pointing to either port it means they are both ON. If the tab is point directly at a port (pipe) it is completely off and the other side is completely on. Anywhere in between is a proportional mix of some kind.

The next mystery (not really a big one) is that the pump has an in and and out (suction/pressure). The "in" has the filter basket and the out has the filtration connection. In comes from the pool and out goes back to the pool. Once you get the map of water flow clear the purpose of the valves is clear - they are mixing or diverting water along various routes for various reasons.

Good luck!

 

[btolley]

SekiM, inquiring minds want to know, what do you have going in the spa that you need valve 4?

 

[SekiM]

btolley, I honestly dont know. One thing it could be is the Spa has jets near the top and jets at the bottom in the feet area and the feet jets never come on, so maybe this is why

 

[Terry]

Sounds like that is what the other line is to. Try turning valve 4 180 degrees and see if the bottom jets come on. If you turn valve 5 *almost* 180 degrees you'll get more pressure out of the jets, too.

 

[SekiM]

Thanks Terry, i will give that a try tonight, gone quite cold here again (strange weather!) so the hot tub will more than likely be heating up tonight