Is this a spa return line aerator? Any ideas on fixing it?

[dotseurat]

Hello. I’m 1 year into owning an inground pool. I’m the third homeowner since I think it was installed in 1999.

Part of our pool shown in the pictures is a spa seating area that has two jet outlets - one for each seat. The return jets work fine and have a jandy switch to turn them on and off. Also on the pictures is a threaded plastic valve which I think is meant to maybe be an aerator to add bubbles into the return lines?

Opening the valve all the way does nothing. I did notice if I screw in a smaller eyeball directional attachment to restrict the return flow, then water starts coming out that I screwed cap.

I don’t have any original documentation for this spa seat section of the pool to know who made it and how it’s suppose to work and if there’s anyway to fix it or maintain it.

It hasn’t been a priority to fix. At this point it’s more of a curiosity on whether it’d be something that I could get working with little effort.

Does anyone recognize a setup like this and have any suggestions on getting it working again?

Thanks

 

[mas985]

More than likely it is an air line that is connected to a venturi jet.

Are you getting any air out of the jet? With it all the way open, you should be getting quite a lot of air bubbles out of that return. If not, then the line could be plugged. You might try force some water into the jet to see if it comes out the air inlet. While the jet is running, just try to plug the jet and water should shoot out of the air inlet. See if any debris comes out.

 

[dotseurat]

Thanks for the reply.
I’ve never seen any bubble come out the jets with the valve open. As mentioned in my original post, when I indirectly restricted flow I did see water come out which sounds similar to what your suggesting. Should I see a strong stream of water pour out? Would a good way to try to flush out any debris be to blur the return jets directly and the slowly turn the jandy valve to increase pressure and send water through the air line? Assuming that works is that all that would be needed or is a need then to blow air into the to get that water out?

Also - is there a special attachment I should be using on the jet ports? I had only been attaching what I could find from the collection of parts left by previous home owner. I’ve included addional pictures of the jet ports with nothing connected as well as some random attachments I had been using….

Now that you mentioned venturi jet that’s also helpful as I can start reading up on how these work.

Cheers

 

[dotseurat]

some more troubleshooting info - I end up plugging the jet return outlets and left the air valve open and then ever slghtly opened the jandy valve and water did indeed come shooting out.

After that I just wiped clean the air valve and then just blew into it with my mouth and confirmed bubbles do come out the jets easily, but then of course stop when I’m done.

I’m not sure what any of this actually means and will have to do more follow up research to do, but maybe this offers some clues to you and the TFP community.

Thanks again

 

[mas985]

Thanks for the reply.
I’ve never seen any bubble come out the jets with the valve open. As mentioned in my original post, when I indirectly restricted flow I did see water come out which sounds similar to what your suggesting. Should I see a strong stream of water pour out? Would a good way to try to flush out any debris be to blur the return jets directly and the slowly turn the jandy valve to increase pressure and send water through the air line? Assuming that works is that all that would be needed or is a need then to blow air into the to get that water out?

Yes that is what I was suggesting. You don't need to remove the water. When working properly, the venturi will suck it out.

Also - is there a special attachment I should be using on the jet ports? I had only been attaching what I could find from the collection of parts left by previous home owner. I’ve included addional pictures of the jet ports with nothing connected as well as some random attachments I had been using….

Now that you mentioned venturi jet that’s also helpful as I can start reading up on how these work.

What I was suggesting is to just use your hand to cover the outlet of the jet? The water will then be forced out of the air inlet. But you need to let it go for a little while to flush it out completely.

some more troubleshooting info - I end up plugging the jet return outlets and left the air valve open and then ever slghtly opened the jandy valve and water did indeed come shooting out.

After that I just wiped clean the air valve and then just blew into it with my mouth and confirmed bubbles do come out the jets easily, but then of course stop when I’m done.

I’m not sure what any of this actually means and will have to do more follow up research to do, but maybe this offers some clues to you and the TFP community.

Thanks again

When running the jets normally, are you redirecting ALL the water to the jets with the valve. Jets require high water flow to work properly. If you haven't tried that, you might.

 

[dotseurat]

Yes, you are on to something -- I have 3 returns that have independent jandy values to shut them off -- a main return line, a water feature return line (I don't even know what that is, but suspect its a return port at the bottom of my pool), and the spa return line.

It was towards the end of the day and I while experimenting with turning off all but the spa return, I somehow got bubbles to come out of one of the 2 return spa jets and could hear all sorts of suction noise from the air intake line suggesting it was working.

the second jet was not bubbling however, and there was definitely not as much water pressure coming out of it.
I then experimented with capping the jet that was working thinking maybe would force the non-working one to work, but that was not the case, and water was shooting out the air intake valve. In hindsight I guess that makes sense, because capping the working jet just forces the water though the air valve if its open.

So, I uncapped that jet leaving both open and closed all return valves but the spa return, thinking I would get back to a working single jet bubbling again, but I couldn't reproduce what I had done moments agao. I'm not sure if there was something I forgot that I did to get it to work once. Should have been keeping better notes.

I suspect at least I learned from this experiment that the second jet that doesn't have as much water coming out of it is clogged. I poked a bit into the nozzle with a tiny screwdriver and dislodged some rusty metal. It reminded me of this post I came across after the fact regarding someone else having similar issues and the culprit was an old heater that used to be connected -- removing-venturi-jets - That is a similar situation as us -- previous owners used to have a gas-powered heater that was disconnected when we well before we bought it..

I think what I need to do is remove the nozzle with a socket wrench and see if can clear the obstruction further.

Can I just remove the nozzle? Or do I have to take a part off the entire jet somehow first? Not sure if the picture of the jets I shared in an earlier post provide clues. Also wondering if I have to drain the pool below the jet I'm trying to repair before doing this? My hope is that I can just have luck at first removing the nozzle and trying to clear behind it without draining.

Does this sound plausible?

Thanks again for your suggestions here.

Cheers

 

[mas985]

To clear a jet, you need to remove the outer fitting and then the internal nozzle. Then run the pump to clear the line. But I would do this for all the jets at the same time.

 

[dotseurat]

I found this post from last year where you were helping someone out with a similar problem. It sound like it might be the answer to my questions of whether I have to drain the pool first and if I have to first remove the outter piece of the jet:

From: one-of-four-venturi-jets-clogged-need-help

Remove the outer fitting first, then remove the jet nozzle deep inside the spa wall with a long socket wrench. Then turn on the pump and flush the line.

Do you know if from my previous pictures it provides clues on how to remove the outer fitting? Is there a special tool for that? or maybe rig some pliers to catch the inner notches and turn (counter-clockwise?)

Thanks again.

 

[dotseurat]

To clear a jet, you need to remove the outer fitting and then the internal nozzle. Then run the pump to clear the line. But I would do this for all the jets at the same tim

you are very fast to respond. I'm grateful, and glad I'm on the right. At this point, weekends over for me and its dark, so might have to wait until next weekend to give this a try, but excited with the possibility of getting this working again (or at least the first time for us)

thanks again.