Did I just mess this whole thing up??

[Ki7hy]

Hello all, I’m not entirely new around here, I’ve been a reader but haven’t found a need to post yet until now.

I have an issue that I dont understand exactly but let me give you some details on my pool first.

Approximately 27,000 gallons with a deep end. Pop ups with 5 zones. One zone has only one pop up as the zone (might be handy later). The pop ups are the A&A type 2 standard high flow.
Running an EZ2Stage pump 1hp
It has a cyclone on it and a 400 sq ft cartridge filter and a ic60 salt water generator and a blue square valve running the floor. 2” lines throughout except what is coming into the pump. That’s been reduced to 1.5” but it’s 2” to the cyclone all the way to the blue square. Everything has been replaced except the pump.

The pool was in bad shape, it had a 120sq cartridge filter on it, a salt water generator that was dead, and the old gould valve on it.

I have been struggling big time with this pool and I discussed it with a pro and he said the filter was way too small and that I should also get a 400sq ft and a cyclone. I just switched all of this out with new plumbing, filter, cyclone, SWG, and blue square. I’ve never seen so much flow from this pool, it’s excellent....until it isn’t.

My problem is too much flow. There is so much pressure and I think the main issue might be the blue square but I could be completely wrong here. What happens is the filter shows about 7.5psi when switching to another zone so essentially two zones are semi open at the time, when it lands on one zone the pressure goes up to as much as 25 or 30 (especially for the single zone pop up). So what’s happening here is the pressure is to high for the SWG so it throws flashing lights and complains, then the blue square somehow just decided it’s not going to move to the next zone so it just sits there on the same zone with high pressure on the filter. Also, I’m not 100% sure but I think the “low” setting on the pump doesn’t work properly. The filter shows 0 psi when the low is running. Also, there is no other water return in this pool that I’m aware of.

This has been running for literally one night since install so the filter is nice and clean, that’s not the problem, besides that would prevent flow I’m guessing? Also, when I run the aerator it has tons of pressure, I can literally spray the top of the house if I turn it open all the way. I did pull all of the heads out to clear debris as well. Just to be sure that wasn’t my issue.

some thoughts in my head are:

1. slow the pump down, maybe switch it to a variable speed, just spent $2500+ between the filter, IC60, and the cyclone so it would be nice not to spend more, I will if it’ll be the right thing to finally get this cruising right.

2. switch the heads to A&A Gamma heads so I can get that 9/16” opening and that might help. The problem I see with this solution is the zone with only one head. So I don’t think that’s going to fix this issue.

So did I screw everything up trying to do what I thought was being an awesome owner?

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! Until we can get someone familiar with your cleaning system on this thread, do you have the ability to bypass the cleaning system temporarily? Just to keep water moving like normal (skimmer to returns) without kicking off your SWG? As for the filter being clean, be careful. While it may not be the root problem, if you aren't using a TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C test kit to manage your chemistry, the water can look fine but still overwhelm a filter. So keep that in mind.

For now, can you post a couple pics of your equipment pad? Also be sure to update your signature with all of your pool and equipment info please. Include which test kit you are using as well. We'll get more eyes on this today to try and help.

 

[Ki7hy]

Welcome to TFP! Until we can get someone familiar with your cleaning system on this thread, do you have the ability to bypass the cleaning system temporarily? Just to keep water moving like normal (skimmer to returns) without kicking off your SWG? As for the filter being clean, be careful. While it may not be the root problem, if you aren't using a TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C test kit to manage your chemistry, the water can look fine but still overwhelm a filter. So keep that in mind.

For now, can you post a couple pics of your equipment pad? Also be sure to update your signature with all of your pool and equipment info please. Include which test kit you are using as well. We'll get more eyes on this today to try and help.

I’m using one of the Taylor kits. Don’t remember the number but it was recommended on here many many times. Seems to cover all of the readings I could ever want for the most part.

I’ll try to grab a pic of the equipment today at some point.

The night before last I had several of the pop ups out of the pool because the three pronged tool broke and I didn’t have this pressure problem, there was plenty of flow into the pool. This only started last night when I was able to put the pop ups back in the pool after getting a new tool. The only way to bypass any of this is to remove the pop ups. I don’t have a way to skip the cleaning system.

 

[Jimrahbe]

K,

You almost can't have too much pressure..

The IC 60 does not have any sensor that tells it there is too much pressure, so let's start there and tell me what lights are actually flashing..

Does your pool have normal wall returns, or does all the return water come through the in floor cleaning system (IFCS).

Seems to me your basic issue is your IFCS is not switching off the single zone. Otherwise high pressure when using the IFCS seems normal to me..

That said I do not have a IFCS and don't have any experience with them, other than what I read here.

Are you manually switching things on and off, or do you have some type of automation.. If so, what automation system do you have?

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Ki7hy]

K,

You almost can't have too much pressure..

The IC 60 does not have any sensor that tells it there is too much pressure, so let's start there and tell me what lights are actually flashing..

Does your pool have normal wall returns, or does all the return water come through the in floor cleaning system (IFCS).

Seems to me your basic issue is your IFCS is not switching off the single zone. Otherwise high pressure when using the IFCS seems normal to me..

That said I do not have a IFCS and don't have any experience with them, other than what I read here.

Are you manually switching things on and off, or do you have some type of automation.. If so, what automation system do you have?

Thanks,

Jim R.

Thanks Jim,

When the pool settles on a single zone the IC60 goes into the startup mode like it does when you first turn it on and it’s testing for salt levels. I believe it’s the salt level and the red light below it that flash together. If you have a similar model SWG I imagine you know what I’m talking about.

When I say too much pressure I guess I’m thinking back pressure. Like the pop ups can’t get water through fast enough so it backs up at the plumbing which I think causes havoc on the impeller in the blue square the. It backs up further down the line causing the SWG to freak out because water might be trying to get the opposite direction maybe? However I’m not sure how that works if the pump is still pushing water forward. That’s why I’m here. The pop up’s are the bottle neck, if I remove them, all is well. But obviously nothing gets swept in the pool.

I don’t have wall returns. The only way water gets back to the pool is through the five pipes connected to the blue square or the aerator.

 

[Jimrahbe]

K,

While we wait for someone that understands IFCS better.. What the heck is a "Blue Square".. Does not ring a bell with me???

When the IC 60 is checking for salt, the High and Low salt lights flash like at a railroad crossing... This generally happens at start up and repeats every 12 hours.. I know it happens after being in the Service mode, but based upon your comments, it sounds like it happens whenever the flow switch turns off due to lack of flow..

I am not sure why your flow switch would shut off, if as you say you have great flow??

How is your IC60 installed?? How about a few pics of your equipment pad. It might help some of our IFCS guys with their answers.

What automation system do you have??

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Ki7hy]

Sorry Jim, I missed answering the automation question. By automation I suppose you mean timers and such? The pump has its own built in timer and the IC60 has a P1100 series timer. Hopefully that answers your question.

Yep, it flips to that mode, if I take out the pop ups so the pool can flow better then the IC60 is perfectly happy. It’s definitely not the flow switch, the green flow light is on during this time.

the Blue Square isn’t really common or popular but it’s a local company here in Chandler that makes replacements for the old Gould and other valves. The thing is super simple and has a much larger impeller. No little ceramic balls or pistons to cause issues.

I will get pics of the pad and plumbing later today when I’m home hopefully. Busy weekend this weekend on my side but I also need to get this sorted. I shut the pump off last night when I noticed this was happening. Tonight I’ll probably pull pop ups out so at least I can get the chlorine generator and filter doing their thing.

 

[Ki7hy]

Ok, sorry it’s been awhile but I have everything figured out.

irst, the issues were separate. I just did too many things at once. The IC60 was rebooting every couple of minutes. Did some research on here and then hooked it up to its own power and not the intelliPH box and it worked like a champ. Ordered parts for the IntelliPH and put that back to right and that problem is now solved and acid is dispensing on an hourly basis as we speak too.

Second, the one zone one pop up that the blue square wasn’t passing apparently had too much pressure, potentially causing back pressure maybe. I ordered an A&A type 2 gamma pop up and set it to the max head size and now it switches zones. So all is good there too.

So everything is working perfect right now. I just need to get the IC60 and the IntelliPH setup and that’ll probably take me a couple weeks to fine tune then to what’s needed but that’s all that’s left.

I didn’t want to leave this thread hanging in case it’s any help at all to anyone searching the threads.

Thanks all for offering to help, I appreciate it.