Sheer Descent continues to clog….

kvoigt

Member
Jul 16, 2022
11
Decatur, GA
We installed an in ground, saltwater pool two years ago. The pool includes an attached hot tub spa.

The spa has two spillovers into the pool. We also have an accent wall that includes two 24” sheer descents. On our lounge ledge we have two bubblers.

Once the pool was complete, we figured out that the single Hayward Tristar VS 950 pump was not strong enough to have all three water features working simultaneously. If the bubblers and sheer descents were running, the spa spillover would not fall into the pool correctly due to the lack of pump power.

The builder went back and added a 2nd pump. The 2nd pump controls just the bubblers and the sheer descents while the main pump controls the pool and spa / spillover.

To make the plumbing for this to work, I believe they had to run the water from one of two skimmers direct to that pump, which bypasses the main pool filter.

We then had issues with the sheer descent losing shape. I believe this is due to debris getting deep into the sheer descents and ruining the flow.

The builder the replaced the sheer descents and I made them add a small cartridge filter to that pump to help prevent debris from clogging the descents again.

And now, even with the cartridge filter added, it appears debris has gotten into those descents and we’re unable to fix the shape of the flow. We’ve tried using the long, flat metal cleaning tool with no luck.

I don’t know what to do next.

My concerns are that 1 of my 2 skimmers isn’t even going through the main filter now and both sheer descents are not working - when they’re turned on, we lose a lot of water because it’s splashing up against the wall.

Would it make sense to just put it back to a 1 pump system and deal with not being able to use all three features simultaneously?

Is there a stronger pump that could be used that could maybe make it work?

Please excuse any incorrect terminology- I’m still relatively new to all this and not even sure if I’m explaining this correctly.

Thanks for any insight or suggestions!
Kris
 
Last edited:
Post up pictures of your equipment pad including all of the valves and I'm sure someone can help you. I assume you do not have suction/drains on the side of the pool since the 2nd pump was a bit of an afterthought?
 
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