Been dealing with this for over a year. Any thoughts?

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I'm not enough of a DE guy to know what affect clogging that breather might have. For sure, clean it up. Is it installed correctly?

The grids look decent enough but it won't hurt to clean them with TSP.
 
So, still losing flow after 5+ hours but this may have something to do with it, thoughts? So, yesterday I go and look at the pool and the flow is awesome in the AM(after backwash). 5 hours later I go and look again and the 2 return jets on my deep end bench seat show very little if not zero flow, but the other jets are fine. So, I had an idea. I close all the returns except for the 2 on the bench. I crank up the RPMS and flow is cranking and I notice bubbles. I turn the pool RPM down and then open up the other returns and sure enough, the flow is good again on the bench. Could the little bubbles being made by the Salt Cell be causing an airlock in the lines? The pool pump has ZERO bubbles and I do not see any leaks anywhere nor is my water level falling. Any ideas if air from cell can cause airlocks?
 
rgnbull1227 said:
So, still losing flow after 5+ hours but this may have something to do with it, thoughts? So, yesterday I go and look at the pool and the flow is awesome in the AM(after backwash). 5 hours later I go and look again and the 2 return jets on my deep end bench seat show very little if not zero flow, but the other jets are fine. So, I had an idea. I close all the returns except for the 2 on the bench. I crank up the RPMS and flow is cranking and I notice bubbles. I turn the pool RPM down and then open up the other returns and sure enough, the flow is good again on the bench. Could the little bubbles being made by the Salt Cell be causing an airlock in the lines? The pool pump has ZERO bubbles and I do not see any leaks anywhere nor is my water level falling. Any ideas if air from cell can cause airlocks?
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No. Bubbles on the inlet side can prevent priming, but on the outlet side the water would clear any air quickly.

If pump flow rate and filter pressure stay the same, then your return flow has to stay the same. Since you know return flow is changing, either the pressure is changing and the gauge isn't indicating it, or your pump is changing flow rate.
 
True, one would think. Any reason then why after forcing all the water through the bench jets did the flow resume normal flow? Same RPMS, same everything, just a short burst of RPM and closing the other jets seemed to temp resolve the issue. Wonder if its backpressure. frustrating to say the least.
 

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rgnbull1227 said:
True, one would think. Any reason then why after forcing all the water through the bench jets did the flow resume normal flow? Same RPMS, same everything, just a short burst of RPM and closing the other jets seemed to temp resolve the issue. Wonder if its backpressure. frustrating to say the least.
Click to expand...

The only pressure that could cause it would be between the pump and filter. Anything after that would show up on the pressure gauge. I think your pump is doing something odd. I'm not sure how the safety feature on that pump works.
 
Ok to recap... you closed all jets except the bench jets, turned up the RPM, and bubbles shot out the bench jets. You then turned down the RPM, had good flow out of all of the jets for a few hours, but 5 hrs later flow to all the jets had dropped again.

How are you opening and closing the jets on your pool? Are they all on a multi-port valve or do they have their own valves? Are you positive the valves are opening fully and there's nothing obstructing the flow?

Maybe post a pic of your equipment so we can see what you're working with.
 
Thats exactly right. Each return Jet section has it own pipe and gate valve. I will take pics and upload.

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Yes, SVRS Intelliflo. RPMS stay steady, just the flow reduces. I can either do what I mentioned above, just run the Bench Jets for a few and then open the rest and all good. Or, I can literally backwash for 10 secs, rinse and great flow. The pool is crystal clear and have had the Chlorine at almost 5 for a week and a half. Def no algae in the pool clogging the filter. When I did the TSP soak overnight, Lowes only had the phosphate free one. Amazon just delivered the regular TSP today so will try that as well this weekend as the only other thing I can think of is the grids have oil and super fine particles and oil are slowing flow. Now today I backwashed as the pressure was up to 23PSI up from 18.
 
This is why I recommend a filter bypass valve. I use it to get better pressure in my spa when in spa mode. If you had one, you could then immediately isolate if this is a filtering issue or not.

I would call Pentair and ask them that if your DE filtering system becomes "clogged, or similar to severely obstruct waterflow, does your pump shut down it's actual output/pressure to accommodate the head-loss but leaves the setting [2500] reading at what it was originally programmed. This makes sense bc when you back-wash and clean your DE system, you are getting good water flow. Forget everything else, that when your DE system needs back washing, you do it and your pressure resumes.

Finally, make sure your pump and all of its parts are all fully correct and functional...good luck
 
So the SVRS is a safety feature for those with intake issues. If it detects intake obstructions it reduces flow. I never looked into how this is implemented, but could your pump be erroneously detecting intake obstructions and bypassing? I'd look interesting that.
 
I have recirc on my system and can bypass the filter. Doing that, I never lose flow. So its def with the filter in some way.

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If the SVRS detects a flow issue, its shuts down. As an example, if I close a valve to fast, the pump can shut down thinking something is stuck on the intake side. We have young children so we wanted an SVRS and also installed 2 main drains. The SVRS does not slow down, its shuts down.
 
Well this is a head scratcher.

When you close the bench jets and turn up the RPMs, do bubbles come out the other jets?

Since the pressure isn't dropping in your filter - only the flow from your jets drops - the water getting sucked up from the pool and pushed into the filter by the pump has to be moving somewhere... no? My best guess is that one of your 3 valves - or one or more of your 12 jets - has an obstruction in it or otherwise isn't working properly. Have you checked every one of them? Do any of the return valves return flow to the pool floor by any chance? Keep us posted.
 
Big head scratch-er. So today, flow reduced. Tried something new. Just shut off pump and turned right back on. The Pump has a "Priming" start speed of 3450 RPMS. It stays at this level until it senses good flow (primed) or 10 secs. Just shut off and turned on a flow returned. Also, in the afternoon as the flow reduced, I through the Valve into recirculate. Stayed stings rest of day. Switched back to filter and flow was good (no backwash). Tomorrow I am going to soak in TSP for a few hours. Has to be in the filter and just maybe the Phosphate free TSP didn't clean it good enough
Will report back tomorrow.
 

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