Help with broken return jet

[Bryantom]

Hey, I have a return that is broken and leaking water. It is on a fiberglass pool and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how I should go about fixing this. In the past some one temporarily fixed it with some putty but that is leaking again. Thanks for any input

 

[vtpools]

Pool putty will work as a band aid, your alternative is to replace it. Replacing it involves either cutting the concrete above the return and digging down, or tunneling under the concrete if the deck isn't too wide. The putty can also be found at Lowe's or Home Depot usually.

 

[Bryantom]

Pool putty will work as a band aid, your alternative is to replace it. Replacing it involves either cutting the concrete above the return and digging down, or tunneling under the concrete if the deck isn't too wide. The putty can also be found at Lowe's or Home Depot usually.

Yeah the pool putty was used before. Question, do you know why I couldn't use one of those pvc pipe cutters that work from the inside and cut out this fitting and replace it that way?

 

[vtpools]

Yeah the pool putty was used before. Question, do you know why I couldn't use one of those pvc pipe cutters that work from the inside and cut out this fitting and replace it that way?

You likely wouldn't be able to get it to seal correctly without using more pool putty. Basically there's two halves to the fitting itself, the piece that you can see and a nut on the other side that tightens the fitting against the pool and seals it with the help of some silicone. Then the pvc pipe gets glued into the fitting itself. Way back in the day installers used above ground return fittings, but now there are specific ones for the job, see: Fiberglass Fittings - CMP. You could certainly get the fitting out of there, but without getting the back half on the other side of the pool to tighten it down you would undoubtedly get a leak unless you used pool putty to seal the fitting to the pool wall. Additionally you need to glue the fitting to the pvc pipe which would also be a bit of a chore.

 

[Bill1974]

If you can make do with blocking off this fitting that might be your best bet. You have the challenge of sealing to the pool wall and the fitting itself. That is a bulkhead fitting. Whatever you use to seal, be considerate to what you use to seal to the fiberglass pool wall so that the when the time comes to make a permanent fix (replace the fitting) that is can be done without have to fix the pool wall.

It does not look like there is much wall thickness on the fitting to allow opening it up to fit a pipe or anything in it. Even then you still need to seal to the outer flange/face of the return jet and also seal the back side of the return jet to the pool wall.

The best Band-Aid I can come up with is epoxy in the inner part of the eyeball fitting. This needs to be set in far enough so that when the outer ring and eyeball are installed it will compress the flange against the pool wall. Between the flange and pool wall use something (silicone) to seal (unless others have better recommendation). All the leak point can be sealed with epoxy. There no going back with this method, no way to adjust the eye ball, winterizing will be challenge too.