New Member from MN

The fitting with a wing nut is a valve to drain the water out of the heater when you winterize it. It should turn one way all the way in to close it. I just replaced a heater last year and put shut off valves on the inlet and outlet pipes with flanges so I could remove the heater when the pool was full (Your black pipes.. mine are PVC). There is a straight pipe in between the the two pipes at the bottom with a valve so water passes by the heater. I also use that valve to regulate the flow to the heater when the heater is in use.
 
it is called a wing nut drain plug. They use them on car radiators too. Sounds like the wing part probably rusted off. You may be able to use pliers to turn it but with out seeing it up close I can't recommend anything at this point. Google it or maybe someone else on the forum can pipe in if they ever experienced this situation. The fitting probably has a pipe fitting into the heater flange and can be removed and replaced. My Raypak heater just has plugs instead of a wing nut valve.
 
Thanks for the help on identifying. It's rusted to the point that it no longer turns. I even removed the fitting and tried to put it in a vise and rotate the center plug. Just ended up stripping threads, damaging flanged inside stopper. Going to stop by hardware store and see if something will fit to plug the hole. At least then I can test the sytem... but likely the actual water line going into the heater is loose enough where I'll have problem keeping my head.
 
It's so much fun to learn about your new toys! :mrgreen:

Haha. It's fun as long as I learn something in the process. ;)

At least at the end of the day I looked over the pool and found an unfortunate mouse who had at some point taken a dip in the pool recently. I say that was a good thing because when I fished him out with the leaf net, at least I accomplished and resolved something, no matter how small, with the pool today.

:cheers:
 
Pool guy coming out today to look at plumbing/heater. They serviced the pool last year for previous owner and said the heater was operational, which is surprising for how rough it looks. I called today and they are coming today. I guess no one else around here is crazy enough to open their pool yet. Haha.

Hope he's knowledgeable and fixes things properly. Also hope he takes the news of me running the pool from here on out well, too. :cool:
 
Well he showed up... before the time he said he would, which normally would have been good, but he left before I got there to grill him about my pool equipment and history. Pump running when I arrived, isolated to floor drain as water was still below skimmers. Lots of small bubbles in the pump basket.
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4 small leaks in the plumbing: sand filter seal, heater outlet fitting, filter port inlet and outlet. Looks like I get to put on my plumber hat soon.

$90 to show up
$8 for the shut off/drain valve replacement
$90 for a regulator on the heater
0 opportunity to talk to him about my pool

He left his Fluke multimeter on top of my heater so I hung around as long as I could and brushed down my walls/floor, hoping he'd come back to retrieve it but didn't.

Didn't get much bang for my buck. At least he didn't toss a bunch of **** chemicals in the pool...
Berfore brushing:

After I brushed just the corner:
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New filter pressure gauge working well. Started at 10 psi when I arrived, 11.5 when I left after brushing.
 

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Well he didn't return for the multimeter. Until we meet again mysterious PB!

Test results:
Water Temp: 40 (hahahaha)
FC: 0
pH: 7.6
TA: 140
CH: 300
CYA: 0 (I did let sample come to RT)

Not sure what happened to CYA since last year I'm sure it was lots of pucks, but I'll roll with it.

Put about 6 lbs of dry CYA into some pretty pink soccer socks and hung them from a pool noodle. Will hit with chlorine when the sun hits the trees.
 
Hold on ... did you test the CC? The CYA many have converted to ammonia and that is easier to get rid of without more CYA. I would raise the FC up to about 5ppm and then test in 30 minutes and see what the FC and CC values are.
 
Oh.....geography. I'm whining about our slow spring and my pool water being 72. Expecting near 80 by this time of year. Maybe I should come get your (old) heater and take it off your hands...lol.
 
Oh.....geography. I'm whining about our slow spring and my pool water being 72. Expecting near 80 by this time of year. Maybe I should come get your (old) heater and take it off your hands...lol.

Haha. We'll see if it actually works maybe next week!

So tested after adding 128 oz of 12.5% labeled chlorine, that should be fresh. Bought it last week. Says "BB 03/20/2015" on the bottom. Assuming that is a "best by" date. Does that mean it was likely manufactured 03/20/14? Would be real fresh then! Anyway:

FC: between 0.5 and 1.0
CC: 1.5

TC Seems low for adding that amount to what I think is a 29K gallon pool since I should have had 4.3 ppm. Some direct evening sun going on right now.
 

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