No air from spa jets, other strangeness

[stevebrain]

I have an in-ground pool with an attached concrete spa, 4 jets, that is 27+ years old. It uses venturi air without a blower. Recently I started the spa and no air whatsoever comes out of the jets. My pool guy said their might be water in the air lines, so I lowered the level below the jets, hooked up a shop vac in reverse to pump air into the pvc inlet by the pool filter. This blew all the water out, but when I refilled it, still no air from the jets. I hooked up the shop vac again and started the spa, but when I did that, all the air, and a lot of it, comes out of a single jet. I even tried reducing the air pressure, and no matter what I do it only comes out of that one jet. If I remove the air pressure altogether, water starts flowing out of the air snorkel at the pool filter and there is no air at any jet.

I'm wondering if one or more of my air check vales are broken and the air lines are filled with water. Does that sound like what might be happening? And if so, is there any way to replace those check valves, or is my spa forever broken? Any other advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[ajw22]

See if your spa jets are removable. If so, remove them and check for debris.

Hard to say what the problem may be as there are many ways of plumbing a spa.

How many air check valves do you think you have?

Most likely some debris somewhere in the air/water/jet interfaces.

 

[stevebrain]

Thanks. I have no idea how many air check valves there are. I'll try removing the valves.

 

[ajw22]

I'll try removing the valves.

Try removing the spa jets instead.

 

[1poolman1]

Thanks. I have no idea how many air check valves there are. I'll try removing the valves.

There are no "air check" valves in a spa system like yours. In fact, the entire spa plumbing, both water and air, are flooded to the same level as the water in the vessel. Proper flow through the jet orifices will create a vacuum that draws air through the air pipe.
If you have a blower attached to the air-inlet pipe back at the pad, there should be one check valve just below it to prevent water from rushing back into the air line and flooding the blower when it is turned off.
Sounds like, dirty filter, pump on low speed. Also it could be a clogged jet orifice, worn orifices, an eyeball turned forcing water back up the air tube flooding it and there is not enough flow to create the vacuum needed for the rest of the venturis to work.