Actuator setup for feature plumbing

[TonyR68]

Hi All,

I have a dedicated feature pump(Pentair VSF) and filter for my pools features. 2 bubblers (ColorVision) and 4 deck jets (MagicStream Laminars). I’m trying to assess how I setup my IntelliCenter and IntelliValves (feature circuit, pump circuits and valve circuits) to support the following scenarios:
1) Deck jets only with pump at 25 gpm.
2) Bubblers only with pump at 30 gpm
3) both deck jets and bubblers with pump at 45 gpm

My current plumbing is as follows:
I have a tee after the pump/filter that splits the bubblers and the deck jets. After the tee I have a dedicated 2-way valve for the bubblers and another 2-way valve for the deck jets. These are planned to be IntelliValves. Thereafter each bubbler and deck Jet has a manual 2-way valve.

Challenges:
1) if the pump is set to 25 gpm but both 2-way values (for bubbles and deck jets) are open, then I don’t have enough water pressure on the deckjets and the water just dribbles out the deck jets into the drain … slowly draining water from the pool.
2) the pool equipment pad is below the pool water line, so the main 2-way valve for the deck jets must be closed when the jets are not in use… otherwise water flows slowly to the deck jets and into the drain.

I hope the post is not too long and understandable. Any guidance on how best to setup/configure the IntelliCenter would be much appreciated. If need be, I can adjust the plumbing.

Best regards

Tony

 

[Jimrahbe]

Tony,

Setting up the individual valves and speeds is pretty easy as you just make a Feature circuit and name it whatever you want say "Bubblers" and assign a pump Speed/GPM for "Bubblers" on water feature pump speed page.

Making them work together I suspect will require the use of a Group Function and because I have an EasyTouch I have no clue how they actually work..

Let's see if one of these guys can get you pointed in the right direction.

Calling @Turbo1Ton and @matthewsunshineflorida

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Turbo1Ton]

You will have bubblers and deck jets set up independently in your feature circuits. See mine below.



Then in the pump settings you assign deck jets to run @ 25 GPM and bubblers to run @30 GPM. Similar to mine below, except I am running based on speed, not flow.



You will need to create a circuit group with both the bubblers and deck jets in it, similar to my Kid Play circuit shown below.



and assign that to the pump as well, and assign 45 GPM to that feature circuit. I added this below to show you.



The only down side I see to running like this is that you will have to remember that to have both features on at the same time, you must engage the circuit group, instead of toggling both features on independently. For example, you are running your bubblers and you decide you want to bring the deck jets on, you would not toggle deck jets on, you would toggle your circuit group on. Because if you just turned on the deck jets, the flow would stay @ 30 GPM since that is the highest circuit flow selected. Hope this makes sense.

Also if you have a mixture of speed and flow assignments, the pump will run the flow first. Just keep this in mind. I chose to only run speed settings once I figured this out.



--Jeff

 

[TonyR68]

@Turbo1Ton
Wow, such detailed feedback and support. Thank you very much and I’m greatly appreciative for the knowledge sharing here. I will try set this up as described and come back with any questions.

@Jimrahbe
Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

Best regards

Tony

 

[mknauss]

Thank you very much and I’m greatly appreciative for the knowledge sharing here.

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[matthewsunshineflorida]

Any guidance on how best to setup/configure the IntelliCenter would be much appreciated. If need be, I can adjust the plumbing.

Perfect tutorial. This kind of thing should really become a sticky somewhere on TFP because almost every intellicenter owner would really benefit from understanding circuit groups. I rarely see anyone talk about it, but it's gotta be the most useful thing about intellicenter - and PBs seem to know very little about it when it makes all the difference for spa/pool/feature pools.

My PB's start up guy knew absolutely NOTHING about it. In fact, he told me I would never get the 5ft spa spillover beyond its very underwhelming pool setting. When in fact, it's as simple as adding a feature with the type "Spillway" which then turns the suction valve to pool mode but the return valve to spa mode. He had no idea how to program circuit groups to features or even to set pump speed with features, so he expected me to turn on a valve, then go to the pump and set it to some arbitrary RPM that I have to remember and constantly modify - which we all know often causes the pump to freak out and activate the 3450 RPM setting. Such a hassle.

The only down side I see to running like this is that you will have to remember that to have both features on at the same time, you must engage the circuit group, instead of toggling both features on independently. For example, you are running your bubblers and you decide you want to bring the deck jets on, you would not toggle deck jets on, you would toggle your circuit group on. Because if you just turned on the deck jets, the flow would stay @ 30 GPM since that is the highest circuit flow selected. Hope this makes sense.

To prevent this from happening, I actually just "hide" all features i.e. set "Show as feature" to "NO." Features then only contain a bunch of GPM and RPM levels, which are then tied to the PUMPS configuration page but hidden from view until you activate a circuit group they are a part of:



The exception to this that you see is that I do show the valves and intentionally do NOT assign them any pump speed - because of a Circuit Group bug that does not respect the current running group's valve setting. For example, if I run the group "Waterfall and Bubbler Low," it turns my pump to 1600 RPM and opens the appropriate valves. If I then turn on "Waterfall and Bubbler High," to let kids play on the sunshelf for a few minutes, it modifies the pump speed appropriately. Then, let's say I turn off "Waterfall and Bubbler High," intellicenter turns OFF the valves since they are marked as a part of the circuit group - even though the "Low" circuit group is still on and also requires those valves be open. Intellicenter treats circuit groups as completely individual little programs instead of looking at the appropriate state of all valves for all ON circuits before turning off valves.

So if I have the above situation, as soon as I turn off "Waterfall and Bubbler High," I then immediately flick the valves back on under the features - and because they aren't assigned any pump speeds, they don't change whatever the current Circuit Group setting is (i.e. Low or Medium or whatever).

Intellicenter still has a lot of obvious bugs that, as a Computer Engineer myself with a little software development experience - I mean it's just not that hard to fix at all. For the above issue, you just go "When Circuit Group is turned off, IF each feature is not used in another Circuit Group that's on, only THEN turn it off."

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I was glad to make that decision - the time, money, and hassle saved vs the pool store or a service is more than made up for by even a gold sponsorship.