Ideas for correcting "Wonkie" bubbler fountains?? (Out of control bubblers)

[DannyHaynes]

Does anyone have a better idea or experience for keeping these three bubbler fountains in check? This is a 5 1/2" deep fountian on the side of my pool. Currently I'm using landscape wall blocks to baffle two of the three fountains. Without the blocks in place, at least one of the fountains spins uncontrollably because the pool of water becomes turbulent, splashing up the sides and out of the top of the fountian.

I feel sure there are more people out there with this issue, I had friends who had a bubbler in the first step of their pool and had this same problem. We could never find a valve adjustment that worked for them and obviously my current solution wouldn't work when the bubbler is the first step in your pool.

The fountains in question:

My current solution: landscape wall blocks baffling two of the fountains. Minus a better solution, I'm going to paint these white to camoflage them a bit.

 

[mas985]

Post a picture of the equipment pad plumbing.

The best control is with a valve if you can add one.

 

[DannyHaynes]

Thanks for replying! Here are three pictures with notes.

This is the full equipment pad:

This is a close up of the valves you probably want to see. The red circle diverts pool/spa. The blue diverts spa fill-spill/fountains

These three manual valves for each of the bubblers are located a few feet behind the fountain:

 

[mas985]

So I guess you do not want to reduce the flow to the fountains? I understand the aesthetics would be less. Your current solution may be the best compromise.

A more drastic solution might be to remove a layer of stone for the spillover so the fountain area depth is reduced.

 

[DannyHaynes]

So I guess you do not want to reduce the flow to the fountains? I understand the aesthetics would be less. Your current solution may be the best compromise.

A more drastic solution might be to remove a layer of stone for the spillover so the fountain area depth is reduced.

Yeah, you are seeing exactly where I am. I've tried many different valve postitions. I have to lower the fountains WAY down (almost non existent) to eliminate the water turbulence. That doesn't make my other half happy, so using those blocks as a baffle has been my best solution so far. Eliminating the turbulence and splash not only looks better, it has been one of my goals so that I can minimize splash on the coping before I convert to Saltwater. At this point I can at least feel like I can move forward and convert.

You have a good idea in lowering the spillover, I hadn't considered that as an option. I think it was probably a flawed design by the pool builder or maybe it was designed to be used at a lower flow with a trickle over the spill way.

Thanks for taking a look at it.