I have an indoor pool, 16’ by 26’. All of the piping is accessible from the crawl space under the floor. When it was installed 4 plus years ago, the plumbers put a Jandy 3-way valve under the floor, directly above the main drain. That worked fine but any time I wanted to adjust the valve, I had to go down there and adjust it. The pump is about 12 feet behind the valve and is another 5 feet to the right of this valve. So I decided to remove the Jandy and run separate lines from the main drain and the skimmer up to just before the pump topside. Now I can adjust the skimmer-main drain easily. I did this about 1 year ago. The problem I want to address is that I now get a considerable amount of air coming from my return lines in the pool. I have tried to take a photo of this but it really doesn’t show. I have no idea where this air is coming from. I have no leaks whatsoever in to crawl space. But I am wondering if this air in the system will damage my pump? It’s a Pentair variable speed model that works very well. I am also wondering if I should put two check valves just before the pump to prevent air from leaking back when the pump isn’t running? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. BTW, my old username was Bwdonohues58.
Air in my return lines.
- Thread starter BillinHomer
- Start date
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,573
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Welcome back to TFP.
You have a suction side air leak and one of the joints in the main drain or skimmer line you put in is not glued well.
If you can reach each joint and wrap saran wrap around each joint the saran wrap should seal the air leak and let you identify which joint need to be reglued.
If the air is not accumulating in your pump basket and causing your pump to lose prime then it will not damage the pump.
Check valves are not going to solve your air leak problem. I would try the Saran wrap trick.
You have a suction side air leak and one of the joints in the main drain or skimmer line you put in is not glued well.
If you can reach each joint and wrap saran wrap around each joint the saran wrap should seal the air leak and let you identify which joint need to be reglued.
If the air is not accumulating in your pump basket and causing your pump to lose prime then it will not damage the pump.
Check valves are not going to solve your air leak problem. I would try the Saran wrap trick.
Thanks so much! I’m sure that’s correct. There were many joints in hard to reach places so I’m sure I must have messed one up.