Blocking a jet seems to reduce the flow of the others

Jump to latest Follow Reply
D

djibouti

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2021
52
San Francisco Bay Area
Pool Size
1500
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
I noticed in the past the blocking a jet in my in ground stand-alone spa seems to reduce the flow of the other jets, which seems the opposite of what should happen.

I recently installed eyelets in 3 of my 6 jets (I need a wrench to install the other 3 so was going to do that later) and now when I run into pump at full speed I get a lot of noise at the air intake and the remaining jets don't seem to have as much flow as before, although it's not easy to know for sure. But they do "hiccup" as if there's too much air in it lines.

Any thoughts what I might look at to figure out out? The point of the eyelets was to improve the circulation pattern so my skimmer would work at low RPM. I'm not actually sure if it does yet but so far it seems to have made full RPM worse
 
Show us pics of the eyelets you removed and installed.

Show us pics of your 1500 gallon pool/spa and the jets as it is a bit unusual.

I would remove the 3 eyelets you installed and see if things revert back to the way they were.

If so then just install one eyelet, and then two, and see what happens.

Do you have an air blower on your system?

My WAG is the new eyelets are a different depth and are blocking something in the air/water venturi.
 
You need to load videos to YouTube and post a link to it.
 
Mine does that when there is water in the air line (which almost always was a result of someone being cute and blocking a jet) try blowing out the air line from the air intake likely near the equipment pad. I use the blower on my shop vac.
 
Ahultin said:
Mine does that when there is water in the air line (which almost always was a result of someone being cute and blocking a jet) try blowing out the air line from the air intake likely near the equipment pad. I use the blower on my shop vac.
Click to expand...
Okay that makes perfect sense, because that is when I first noticed such things, when my nephews would block the jet. So blocking a single jet causes water to back up into the air line? I know where the intake is but I need to get some kind of blower. Just push more air through it?
 
Yup, when the spa was installed they probably put a Hartford loop that keeps the air seperate from the water. When a line is blocked it seems the water follows the path of least resistance through the Hartford loop and into the air line. Since your air , like mine, is passive the jets don't produce quite enough suction to clear the water causing the pulsing. My shop vac is pretty week but I find using it to push air thru from the pad while the pump is on is enough to clear the line.
 
I wonder though... If it ends up being that the eyelets themselves are too constricting and causing water to back up into the air line at full pressure... It seems that this may indicate the reason why they were removed in the first place. Short of a blower on the air intake it seems likely that the only solution is to proceed without them. I'll have to DIY a directional jet that isn't restricting in order to direct flow without also forcing water back into the Hartford loop
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
ajw22 said:
Why do you want to direct flow?
Click to expand...
I'm trying to get my skimmer to work by making the water flow in a circular motion at low RPM. My spa is under a tree and if I vacuum in the morning by afternoon it has Crud in it again. My goal is to prep the spa on days I want to use it then keep the pump on a low RPM too keep it skimmed. I'm in too deep on that project to give up, it's the whole reason I upgraded to a VS pump 😂
 
djibouti said:
I wonder though... If it ends up being that the eyelets themselves are too constricting and causing water to back up into the air line at full pressure... It seems that this may indicate the reason why they were removed in the first place. Short of a blower on the air intake it seems likely that the only solution is to proceed without them. I'll have to DIY a directional jet that isn't restricting in order to direct flow without also forcing water back into the Hartford loop
Click to expand...
Have you considered the addition of a blower? They are relatively cheap (compared to everything else pool related) so Even if you used it just to clear the line before use it would not be bad.
 
djibouti said:
I'm trying to get my skimmer to work by making the water flow in a circular motion at low RPM. My spa is under a tree and if I vacuum in the morning by afternoon it has Crud in it again. My goal is to prep the spa on days I want to use it then keep the pump on a low RPM too keep it skimmed. I'm in too deep on that project to give up, it's the whole reason I upgraded to a VS pump 😂
Click to expand...
Good luck with that.

Any wind will move the debris more than the water flow will.

And it will take a high flow to put any power behind directing the water.
 
Ahultin said:
Have you considered the addition of a blower? They are relatively cheap (compared to everything else pool related) so Even if you used it just to clear the line before use it would not be bad.
Click to expand...
I'm think it's not a problem of the line being blocked "permanently", but rather the pressure from the pump just pushing water back into the air line when restricted by the eyelets. In that case, a blower might be a good solution, but I'd have to look into it and figure out at what pump speeds it should be used. I've never looked into blowers at all, so thanks for steering me to look into this option.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply