Filter only building pressure when the water feature is on?

[Rootyb]

So... pool remodel, new pump (Jandy VS-FHP1.0), new plumbing, new water feature (Paramount Parascope).

Finally got the pump up and running yesterday, and it looks like the pressure gauge on the filter only goes up (to about 10ish) when I turn the valve to activate the water feature. Otherwise, it sits at zero (though, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I was able to bleed air out of the filter and have water come out when the water feature was off).

Already emailed my PB, but... Did they just screw up the plumbing? Is this normal? Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of the plumbing setup, and now I'm at work. IIRC, the center pipe of the valve (Jandy No-Lube) goes to the filter inlet, but I don't really recall the rest.

 

[mas985]

What is the pump RPM? Low RPM = Low Filter Pressure

 

[pooldv]

My VSPUMP has low to no pressure at low rpm. To check filter pressure raise pump speed to a higher RPM, I use 3100 to check it.

 

[Rootyb]

The pump was running at 2000rpm when I checked the filter pressure. Would that make the filter show basically *zero* pressure (and then jump up to 10 when I switched the valve to turn on the water feature)?

 

[mas985]

Yes it would. The water feature probably has higher head loss and if it goes above water level it would also have static lift both which increase filter pressure. So what you are seeing is not unreasonable. But I am surprised the water feature even works well at that low RPM. They usually require higher flow rates.

 

[Rootyb]

Cool, thanks! And yeah, the water feature works with surprisingly low RPM. Though, they made it too tall, so it sticks about 2-3" out of the water (rather than just below the surface, to do the cool turbulent bubbling thing) and shoots water about 10-12' in the air. Which is fun, but not quite what we were going for, lol.

 

[Sseaman]

Same here. Low speed = no reading on pressure gauge, high speed goes to about 8, I can close off some of the valves and it goes higher or lower accordingly


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[Rootyb]

Sounds like the normal output can handle the water flow from the lower speed, no problem, so no pressure builds up. Switch over to the water feature, and it's a smaller opening, so, boom, pressure.

Thanks, all!