Elevated spa drains

[readi]

When pool is off, the spa drains just under the inlet jets. I will post a pic of my equipment here to see if any of the valves are incorrectly set.

Being a new pool owner, I don't know anything about valves.

 

[Jimrahbe]

R,

90% of the time, this problem is caused by a bad, or dirty, check valve in the Spa Return line...

Pics would be great, as we can use them to get you pointed in the right direction..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[readi]

R,

90% of the time, this problem is caused by a bad, or dirty, check valve in the Spa Return line...

Pics would be great, as we can use them to get you pointed in the right direction..

Thanks,

Jim

R,

90% of the time, this problem is caused by a bad, or dirty, check valve in the Spa Return line...

Pics would be great, as we can use them to get you pointed in the right direction..

Thanks,

Jim R.

Here are the pics, not sure if this is sufficient.

 

[Jimrahbe]

R,

I want to make sure we are all on the same page...

Your Spa is designed to spillover into your pool when you are in the Pool mode... Does it normally do this???

You say when the pump is off the spa drains down to just below the inlet jets.. But your pic shows the spa almost completely drained??

For your spa to spillover into the pool, you need to open the valve just above the label that says "Pool Return pg #7. Turn the handle of that valve to point straight down.. This will fully open the valve to send water to the spa.. Please move the handle, turn on the pump and look into the spa.. Tell me if the water is coming out the white pipe in the bottom of the spa or out of the jets in the wall around the seats..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[readi]

R,

I want to make sure we are all on the same page...

Your Spa is designed to spillover into your pool when you are in the Pool mode... Does it normally do this???

You say when the pump is off the spa drains down to just below the inlet jets.. But your pic shows the spa almost completely drained??

For your spa to spillover into the pool, you need to open the valve just above the label that says "Pool Return pg #7. Turn the handle of that valve to point straight down.. This will fully open the valve to send water to the spa.. Please move the handle, turn on the pump and look into the spa.. Tell me if the water is coming out the white pipe in the bottom of the spa or out of the jets in the wall around the seats..

Thanks,

Jim is this the right position?

 

[Jimrahbe]

R,

Yes!!!

After we get water back into your spa and it is spilling over into your pool, I've got a quick test you can run..

Jim R.

 

[Jimrahbe]

R,

Please do not open new threads.. Just keep everything in this one..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[readi]

R,

I want to make sure we are all on the same page...

Your Spa is designed to spillover into your pool when you are in the Pool mode... Does it normally do this???

You say when the pump is off the spa drains down to just below the inlet jets.. But your pic shows the spa almost completely drained??

For your spa to spillover into the pool, you need to open the valve just above the label that says "Pool Return pg #7. Turn the handle of that valve to point straight down.. This will fully open the valve to send water to the spa.. Please move the handle, turn on the pump and look into the spa.. Tell me if the water is coming out the white pipe in the bottom of the spa or out of the jets in the wall around the seats..

Thanks,

Jim R.

It is filling now, will post once spills over into the pool

 

[readi]

Also there is this water leaking behind the spa few feet away. Not sure if this is related or not. Also one of the pool inlets out of there (don’t know what they are called) makes the air bubbles sounds sometimes (like dolphin sounds haha)

 

[readi]

Also there is this water leaking behind the spa few feet away. Not sure if this is related or not. Also one of the pool inlets out of there (don’t know what they are called) makes the air bubbles sounds sometimes (like dolphin sounds haha)

Photo of the water leaking behind behind the spa

 

[readi]

R,

Yes!!!

After we get water back into your spa and it is spilling over into your pool, I've got a quick test you can run..

Jim R.

it is filled and spilling over now. Let me know what do you want me to try to test?

 

[Jimrahbe]

R,

So.. Water is coming into the spa via the little white pipe in the bottom of the spa.. This water is what should cause your spa to fill-up and spillover into the pool..

Once this happens, you can run a quick test..

You have two automated valves... The One directly in front of your pump is called the "Intake" valve, the other one is right after your salt cell, and it is called the "Return" valve.

In your pics, both the Intake and Return valves are in the Pool position.. This means the spa is shut off... I want you to look at the position of both valve and then put the system into the Spa mode. Both valves should move about 180 degrees and the spillover should shut off and the spa just should start to work..

Do that test and tell me what happens.. The main thing is want to know, are both valves moving..

If things look ok, put the system back into the Pool mode, and both valves should move back 180 degrees to where they initially started.

Please let me know how that works..

Is that water coming out of your spa, or is it coming from your neighbor's yard??

That is a real issue if it is coming from the spa.. Can you actually see it coming from the spa or is just bubbling out of the ground?

Where is the equipment pad in relation to the water leak.??

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[readi]

R,

So.. Water is coming into the spa via the little white pipe in the bottom of the spa.. This water is what should cause your spa to fill-up and spillover into the pool..

Once this happens, you can run a quick test..

You have two automated valves... The One directly in front of your pump is called the "Intake" valve, the other one is right after your salt cell, and it is called the "Return" valve.

In your pics, both the Intake and Return valves are in the Pool position.. This means the spa is shut off... I want you to look at the position of both valve and then put the system into the Spa mode. Both valves should move about 180 degrees and the spillover should shut off and the spa just should start to work..

Do that test and tell me what happens.. The main thing is want to know, are both valves moving..

If things look ok, put the system back into the Pool mode, and both valves should move back 180 degrees to where they initially started.

Please let me know how that works..

Is that water coming out of your spa, or is it coming from your neighbor's yard??

That is a real issue if it is coming from the spa.. Can you actually see it coming from the spa or is just bubbling out of the ground?

Where is the equipment pad in relation to the water leak.??

Thanks,

Jim R.

Yes both rotated by 180 in spa mode. The valves are rotating.

 

[readi]

Yes both rotated by 180 in spa mode. The valves are rotating.

And jets are on

 

[Jimrahbe]

R,

Perfect..

Assuming that the valves move like they should..

The next thing to do...

The first valve you moved, that allowed water to go to your spa, is called the "Make-up" valve.. When it was in the off position, no spillover water could ever get to your spa.. Now that it is in the full on position, the water is flowing and the spillover is working. The check valve (no handle) that is just to the right of the Make-up valve, is there to prevent water from flowing backwards and causing your spa to drain down when the pump is off... In theory, if you turn off the pump, the water in the spa should not drain down.. This assumes the check valve is good.. So... if the spa still drains down with the pump off, then turn the Make-up valve off.. For the spa to drain down with the Make-up valve off, means that both the check valve and the Make-up valve both leak.. That could be true, but unlikely... Most likely, something else is bad... Possible the Make-up line going to the spa is broken underground and that is what is causing the spa to drain down and also why you have the water behind you spa.. (Just a guess at this point..)

The first test is to shut off the pump and see if the spa drains down... If it does, the close the Make-up valve and see if the spa still drains down..

Please let me know what you find.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[readi]

I turned it back to pool mode, interesting the suction actuator valve keeps on rotating many full circles and is not stopping. Whereas the spa return valve rotated 180 and stopped towards the pool mode side.

 

[readi]

How do I make this stop

R,

Perfect..

Assuming that the valves move like they should..

The next thing to do...

The first valve you moved, that allowed water to go to your spa, is called the "Make-up" valve.. When it was in the off position, no spillover water could ever get to your spa.. Now that it is in the full on position, the water is flowing and the spillover is working. The check valve (no handle) that is just to the right of the Make-up valve, is there to prevent water from flowing backwards and causing your spa to drain down when the pump is off... In theory, if you turn off the pump, the water in the spa should not drain down.. This assumes the check valve is good.. So... if the spa still drains down with the pump off, then turn the Make-up valve off.. For the spa to drain down with the Make-up valve off, means that both the check valve and the Make-up valve both leak.. That could be true, but unlikely... Most likely, something else is bad... Possible the Make-up line going to the spa is broken underground and that is what is causing the spa to drain down and also why you have the water behind you spa.. (Just a guess at this point..)

The first test is to shut off the pump and see if the spa drains down... If it does, the close the Make-up valve and see if the spa still drains down..

Please let me know what you find.

Thanks,

Jim R.

the Suction/intake actuator valve is still turning around and has not stopped since I switched from spa to pool mode. Should this be the culprit?

 

[Jimrahbe]

R,

Sounds like the Intake actuator is bad..

There are microswitches inside the actuator that can go bad, but... It is not worth my time to repair an old actuator, I would just buy a new one.. Others here would rather repair the old one..

Whatever works for you, works for me.

The first thing you need to do is get that actuator working like it should.

This may or may not fix everything, but it needs to be done first..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[readi]

Actually it just stopped rotating after several minutes of spinning and set itself in pool mode( all intake from pool now)

 

[readi]

R,

Sounds like the Intake actuator is bad..

There are microswitches inside the actuator that can go bad, but... It is not worth my time to repair an old actuator, I would just buy a new one.. Others here would rather repair the old one..

Whatever works for you, works for me.

The first thing you need to do is get that actuator working like it should.

This may or may not fix everything, but it needs to be done first..

Thanks,

Jim R.

Since it spinned several minutes before stopping the spa water level went down already. I am letting the spa fill now till it spills over using pool mode. Wait overnight with pump off and see if spa levels drop. More updates tomorrow, thank you so much for your help in troubleshooting.