Autofill Leak

[texastoasted]

Noticed a hissing sound coming from my autofill today, and sure enough there is a slow leak coming from the top of the fill valve assembly. See attachment. I'm hoping to avoid a $250+ visit from the pool company. In the mean time, I've jammed a stick under the lever to hold the float in the 'up' position, which has stopped the leak/flow of water.

So quick question... I'm a noob and want to confirm that I'm not missing something obvious in replacing this...
1 - Shut off Water at the main
2 - Disconnect the rubber/silicone tube & remove the old fill valve (twists out right...?)
3 - Screw in new fill valve, reattach the tube
4 - Turn water back on
5 - Done ?

THANKS!!!!!

 

[Dirk]

That's what I did. I thought mine failed because of calcium build up from my city's hard water. I'm hoping that now that I'm topping off with soft water that the problem won't reoccur. I might go proactive and just replace it every five years or so.

Couple missing steps (if yours is like mine). The water level adjustment is done by both twisting the body and with that screw you see on the lever. As soon as you turn it to remove it, you'll lose the height adjustment. So make note somehow of the height of the valve in the chamber so you can set the new one the same. You could set a straight edge across the opening and measure the height adjustment from that with a tape measure. The lever adjustment you can recreate when you have both old and new out of the chamber, side by side.

There is the possibility it's fine and is running constantly because it needs to, as in: a leak somewhere in your pool or plumbing. Have you ruled that out? The new one will, I suppose. Or you could turn off the filler and do a bucket leak test.

 

[Dirk]

Sidebar. This is why some pool builders don't like to install auto-fillers, especially when there is also an overflow outlet somewhere in the pool (mine is part of my auto-filler and is inside the same chamber). A failed valve or leaky pool could go on indefinitely without noticing it, costing thousands and thousands of gallons of water. So I inspect mine every time I inspect my skimmer basket, to account for that possibility.

My rationale: the leaking valve issue wasting water is a very remote possibility. Without auto-fill, me wasting more water than that every time I started the hose to fill and then forgot about it for hours, or overnight, is a certainty. I've done that with my stupid little fountain too many times to admit.

 

[texastoasted]

That's what I did. I thought mine failed because of calcium build up from my city's hard water. I'm hoping that now that I'm topping off with soft water that the problem won't reoccur. I might go proactive and just replace it every five years or so.

Couple missing steps (if yours is like mine). The water level adjustment is done by both twisting the body and with that screw you see on the lever. As soon as you turn it to remove it, you'll lose the height adjustment. So make note somehow of the height of the valve in the chamber so you can set the new one the same. You could set a straight edge across the opening and measure the height adjustment from that with a tape measure. The lever adjustment you can recreate when you have both old and new out of the chamber, side by side.

There is the possibility it's fine and is running constantly because it needs to, as in: a leak somewhere in your pool or plumbing. Have you ruled that out? The new one will, I suppose. Or you could turn off the filler and do a bucket leak test.

Thanks for the reminder on recording the height of the float before removing the old assembly, I 100% would have forgot that step!

With regard to the problem being elsewhere, such as a leak in the pool. I'm fairly confident that is not the case, as under normal operation I can hold the float down and the valve will fill in maybe 15 seconds, that is not working correctly anymore.