I have a new pool at our vacation home that I was closing/winterizing at the end of the summer. Everything went great until I tried to blow out my lines. My pool equipment is on a stand about 5 feel above the pool so there are check valves on the lines going from my pump to the skimmer and the main drains so that my pump won't lose prime so far above the pool. When my shop vac wasn't able to produce any bubbles at the skimmer it finally occurred to me that the check valves would keep air and water from going that direction back to the pool. What do people do? Should I take apart the check valves and manually move the flap? Is there an easier way? Thanks so much for any help with this!!
Blowing out lines with check valves --help!!
- Thread starter Rbrb
- Start date
Not sure what you mean by on unions. The 2 check valves are permenantly fixed on the vertical pipes. I saw the pool guy put hem on ( when my pump wouldn't stay primed). He simply cut the vertical pipes and added the one way valves. Do I need to take the covers off the valves each cloing season and blow out from the valves?
This is a union:
http://www.faucetdirect.com/little-gian ... MgodED4A2g
If the covers are removable, then yes, that is probably the only way you will be able to do it.
http://www.faucetdirect.com/little-gian ... MgodED4A2g
If the covers are removable, then yes, that is probably the only way you will be able to do it.
Ok, the don't have unions, the were just glued in. This season ill take the covers off. For the future it sounds like I should cut the valves out and add unions so that I can just reverse them to blow out the lines. Thanks!!!
I usually blow from the skimmer towards the pump regardless. So having non-removable unions isn't really a big deal.
Unfortunately, given my pool and its location, experts all agree that I'm better off not draining below the skimmer and return lines when I winterize. Therefore, blowing backwards wouldn't work for me. I realize too, if I had unions I wouldn't bother to reverse the valves, I would just remove them and blow from where the valve had been located.
You could use a blowout gizmo or a section of vacuum hose to blow out the line from the skimmer. Search for blowout extension, blowout gizmo or just gizmo.
Thanks so much for everyone's help. I'd never seen a blow out gizmo before. With that I could blow from skimmer to pump so don't have to take apart check valve but I have to take apart the other check valve that goes to the main drain anyway, so does it make some sense to just once a year when I have to close the pool to take off the Jandy cover on the check valves, clean them out, blow from those points and carefully put the screws back in so not to strip them? I would blow out my returns from the line coming off my salt cell, no check valve but would take out salt cell to clean and blow from the hole left before putting back the cell. Does that make sense for a yearly procedure?
Assuming your have a vinyl liner pool they sell Aquadors that block water from going into skimmer during winteriziation. I would just install unions before taking apart a jandy valve.