Heating the Spa and not the pool

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Those pictures do not help us. We need to be able to see if the valves are properly set to just suction from Spa and return to Spa when in Spa Mode. I assume when in Pool Mode, the suction would be from Pool and some return to each Pool and Spa.
 
Pool Mode. Water is about an inch below the wall on the pool side. Spa water cascades over the wall. When in Spa Mode, same situation but it seems like it's not really going over the edge, but if a swimmer was in the spa, it's right at the wall, so it would spill over. I'm having trouble attaching the pictures and the videos.
 
mknauss said:
Those pictures do not help us. We need to be able to see if the valves are properly set to just suction from Spa and return to Spa when in Spa Mode. I assume when in Pool Mode, the suction would be from Pool and some return to each Pool and Spa.
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I have no idea where those settings are. It's the Pentair intellicenter. I just have a cartoonish picture of a pool and spa.
 
Take a picture farther back. However with Intellivalves, it is not as intuitive on how the valves are set. Those will likely be replaced in the not too distant future as they have infantile failures.
 
Not sure if these are helpful at all. It's really a tight space behind the equipment where all the valves are. I only ever need to turn the spa valve when vacuuming.
 

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It dark here now. I can get better pics during the day. I think I'm going to have to keep bugging the pool builder to get over here and check everything and explain to me what is happening (or should happen) when I'm trying to heat the spa.
 

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The return side, it says Pool Return, Spa Return, and T Jet.
When you go from Pool to Spa, there needs to be a valve that blocks off the Pool Return and is automated. That does not appear to be true.
Get the pool builder over there to map the system.
 

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ajw22 said:
That spa design does not sufficiently isolate and insulate the spa from the pool.

I hate to be negative, but you have a fundamental design problem.
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It is a very reputable pool builder here in Sarasota. They do a lot of commercial and residential. I would hope that our situation isn't unique. They made it sound like they do pools like this all the time. Hopefully there is a simple explanation. An adjustment of something, hopefully.
 
mknauss said:
The return side, it says Pool Return, Spa Return, and T Jet.
When you go from Pool to Spa, there needs to be a valve that blocks off the Pool Return and is automated. That does not appear to be true.
Get the pool builder over there to map the system.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I'm on it. I will be on him like fly's on flypaper tomorrow. They build pools all over Sarasota. This isn't an unusual pool for them. Hopefully such a big mistake didn't happen.
 
The fact the spa would not heat to your set temp in under 30 minutes or so means something is not set up right. Tell them that. Watch what they look at and do. Verify that the spa heats up with them there.
 
Look at posts 21 and 22.

The red LED, indicating where the diverter is blocking the water flow has not changed.

The actuator needs to move the valve between POOL mode and SPA mode.

Either you mixed up the pictures you posted or the actuator is not turning.
 
Hi all. So I thought I would bring a little closure to this post. My pool builder came to look at my pool situation. He said my spa is 1,700 gallons. He told me it is larger than most and will take a while to heat the spa. He said to expect about 1 degree every 3 minutes. So to go from 60 degrees to 100 degrees I could expect about 2 hours. This seems rather excessive to me, but I guess it is what it is. We bought a solar cover for the spa. I haven't tried it yet, but I want to put the cover on the spa while heating, and hopefully that will help heat it quicker than if it weren't on. My logic is you lose heat through evaporation and if you can contain the "steam" coming off the water, maybe it will heat faster. I know that the cover isn't going to last long as the high temps will probably degrade it, but it was like $60, so it's worth a try. As far as heating the pool, we have had a cold spell here lately, but after tomorrow we should start to warm up. So I'm going to heat the whole pool to about 83 and then just maintain that so the grandkids will be able to swim. I know I will lose a little heat in the evenings, but hopefully it won't be too much, we'll see. We don't want to deal with an entire cover for the whole pool because we really don't have a place to store it or the room to clean it etc. In the past I asked about liquid solar cover, but that would be a last resort unless someone could convince me there aren't severe ramifications from putting that stuff in the water.
 
Merry Christmas! Update. I heated the entire pool during the day with the gas heater from 64 degrees to 80 degrees in about 8 hours. We have been using the solar cover over the spa when we want to use the spa and it has substantially cut down on the amount of time it takes to heat just the spa. Also, now that the pool is 80 degrees, it's only a 22 degree difference, so it's much quicker- roughly 20-25 minutes with the cover on. Whats annoying is after everyone is done using the spa and the pool is back into "pool" mode, I lose all that heated water into the pool. So if anyone wants to use the spa later in the day- I have to heat it all over again. I've been maintaining the pool heat to 80 degrees with the heat pump. I also added the liquid pool cover. I didn't want to, but I didn't want to lose so much of the heat from the pool during the night. It still loses about 5 degrees during the evening, but it's better than losing 20 degrees. The bottle says to reapply it every week. So I figured if I didn't like it, I just wouldn't use it again. I'm due to clean my filters soon anyway. This setup is not what I thought it was, but it's what I have, so I need to work with it. I wonder what my gas bill is going to be next month! :oops:
 
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