Which way does your filter face?

[jmastron]

(I'm starting this as a new thread because it's not directly related to the pump selection)

This may be a silly question, but which way does your filter face? I have a Pentair CCP420 that I put in last year:

Apologies for the mess, it all needs a good cleaning, and I inherited most of the mess. Anyway, I installed it the way I did because it seemed better to have the drain plug (below the inlet/outlet) accessible and not pointed at the pumps. But when I redo, it would certainly look better with less piping to have the inlet/outlet face the camera. How are most peoples' set up? Is it sufficient to think that when cleaning after I open the air vent the water will drain down to the outlet anyway and be light enough that I can just undo the unions and turn the filter before the final drain? Or was I thinking along the right lines when I installed it facing the way it is now, as stupid as it looks?

 

[Patrick_B]

No, and part of it is determined by where your suction line is. I'd rather have fewer elbows on that side of the pump than the other. That said, I might have eliminated the extra 90s and 45 on the discharge run where it ties into SCH80, but that's not a huge deal.

 

[pooldv]

There are pics of my equipment in my build thread in sig.

 

[jmastron]

Thanks. Clarifications: The black pipe isn't Sch80; it's just white Sch40 PVC painted black (and oh so much fun to scrape/rub with acetone to get off to glue new fittings to :-( ). That was all there from before we moved in.

I tied it in that weird way because I didn't know what those valves and tees were for and there wasn't enough exposed pipe to remove that last elbow. I just discovered they are from an old solar system that terminates on a roof at the other end of the pool (no panels) with pretty small pipes (1" out, 3/4" back), so I'm going to remove all of the painted pipe to where it goes into the ground on the lower right of the picture, and take a more direct route from the filter to the return pipe. Then I'm going to turn the new pump 90 degrees to the left, so the controls on it are accessible.

Really just trying to decide whether the drain needs to be reasonably accessible/away from the pump (like it is now), or if it's okay to have it face the pump (so I'd have to disconnect the unions and rotate the filter to get to the drain for the last bit of water). I'm leaning toward leaving it oriented the way it is.

 

[pooldv]

I think I would rotate the filter 90* to the right and use some 45* fittings instead of 90s. I would not face the drain toward the pump. A lot of water comes out of that drain when you open it. I wouldn't work too hard to rotate that pump either. There isn't that much interaction with the controls and it is pretty easy to work it from any angle.

 

[jmastron]

I think I would rotate the filter 90* to the right and use some 45* fittings instead of 90s. I would not face the drain toward the pump. A lot of water comes out of that drain when you open it. I wouldn't work too hard to rotate that pump either. There isn't that much interaction with the controls and it is pretty easy to work it from any angle.

Rotate it 90deg from where it is in that pic, so that the pipes go all the way around it? Or do you mean leave it where it is, rotated 90deg from the pump already? Using 45s is a good idea in any case, I have a pile of 90s ready to go but may get some 45s and see how that goes.

The picture doesn't do justice to the weird pump "house" the previous owner built; the roof is right above the frame, so it's very awkward to get to anything in the middle of the pad (I had to remove the rear roof for the filter to fit). Planning to rebuild as a taller structure, but that's far down on the list. I'm going to be playing with the speeds to see how skimming/cleaning/slow circulation do, and I definitely want easy access to the "Quick Clean" button as I end up adding chlorine at random times late at night often. Eventually an automation system will come with the electrical redo and make that not important, but for now it is.

 

[pooldv]

Rotate the filter plumbing 90* toward the camera, counterclockwise. Yeah, to the right was sorta backwards.

 

[jmastron]

Rotate the filter plumbing 90* toward the camera, counterclockwise. Yeah, to the right was sorta backwards.

That makes more sense, thanks . I made a top-view diagram to make the options clearer in my head (not to any kind of real scale):

I think I'll see how disconnecting the filter goes -- if it drains down below the outlet into the pool and is light enough then to disconnect the unions and move for cleaning in the future (so I can drain away from the pad altogether, then I'll do option B. If it looks like I'm going to want to open the drain in place in the future, then I'll do option A to make that easier.

 

[pooldv]

I definitely like option A a lot better.