I am closing the pool on my own this year and have some questions about closing the in-floor cleaner. In the past, my pool guy has removed the heads from the top 2 steps and plugged them with rubber plugs. However, when I blow out the ports, they still have water in them. I am using a shopvac from the valve side. Lots of water blows out of the heads on the step but seems to keep going forever. I suspect that the heads on the 3rd step is also connected to this discharge line. When I stop blowing the line out, it fills back up to about 1ft below the step. Is this normal? Do you use anti-freeze in the lines before plugging (both valve and head sides)? Thanks for any help!
Help Winterizing a Caretake In-Floor Cleaner
- Thread starter jmag999
- Start date
I have posted a similar question with regards to winterizing these valves. Regardless which valve you have there are a number of ports which feed a branch of cleaner heads. It is probably safe to assume that one of your branches feeds all the cleaner heads in the step. You are likely able to blow out the upper step as it is no longer under water but since it is likely plumbed to the lower step it will never empty completely. My assumption is that the water you see in the plumbing is at the exact same height as the water in the pool. Does that make sense?
The winterizing instructions for the Jandy Caretaker (https://www.jandy.com/-/media/zodiac/global/downloads/tl/tl1334.pdf) suggest removing heads for all that are above freezing line and blowing them out and plugging with rubber expandables. That would likely equate to the heads that are on the upper steps. The cleaner heads that are below the freezing line can be left as is as they are deep enough to not be affected by frost.
In an ideal situation you would be able to create an air lock in each plumbed branch of the cleaning heads. To do this you would need to blow through each port of the valve until you see air bubble up from the heads at bottom of pool. You would then need to immediately plug the port you are blowing into without letting the pressurized air escape which would trap the air in the plumbed line and prevent the water from seeping back into piping. Not an easy task since when you turnoff/remove the Shop-Vac the pressurized air will escape the line. Also not sure if a Shop-Vac has enough pressure to force air through cleaner heads at bottom of pool.
Best method seems to be replumbing the valve so that each port has a shutoff valve that can be closed simultaneously while air is being blown. This video might help explain better what I mean -
The winterizing instructions for the Jandy Caretaker (https://www.jandy.com/-/media/zodiac/global/downloads/tl/tl1334.pdf) suggest removing heads for all that are above freezing line and blowing them out and plugging with rubber expandables. That would likely equate to the heads that are on the upper steps. The cleaner heads that are below the freezing line can be left as is as they are deep enough to not be affected by frost.
In an ideal situation you would be able to create an air lock in each plumbed branch of the cleaning heads. To do this you would need to blow through each port of the valve until you see air bubble up from the heads at bottom of pool. You would then need to immediately plug the port you are blowing into without letting the pressurized air escape which would trap the air in the plumbed line and prevent the water from seeping back into piping. Not an easy task since when you turnoff/remove the Shop-Vac the pressurized air will escape the line. Also not sure if a Shop-Vac has enough pressure to force air through cleaner heads at bottom of pool.
Best method seems to be replumbing the valve so that each port has a shutoff valve that can be closed simultaneously while air is being blown. This video might help explain better what I mean -