Second year with inherited 1980s Sylvan which I hope to close myself this year after having pool company do it last year under my watchful eye. I had to order a new safety cover so I’ve been holding out on closing. Got word the cover will be in Wednesday so I need to close this weekend. I’m comfortable with all the steps re: plumbing and blowing out lines. At least I thought I was...
I installed a new pump in the Spring and decided to re-plumb at the same time. Everything is now much cleaner and condensed in my garage. I’ve attached a pic of current setup. To summarize, 2 skimmer lines (main drains tied in) and 2 return lines.
I was doing some testing last week to prepare for blowing of lines, and was surprised when closing of one side of the return 3-way stopped water flow through the system. When plumbing I had incorrectly assumed 1 return line was for SE return, the other line for the DE return. I did some research to try to determine what might be causing this and came across mention of the “solar recirculating system” plumbed in Anthony/Sylvan pools. This made some sense as I remembered this pool used to have a propane heater. But I still couldn’t figure out why water flow was stopped if water should be flowing out of the DE main drain via the recirculating system. After thinking it through I realized that those two things on each side of the main drain in the DE that I never knew what they were...returns (I think). It looks like they’ve been plugged with the Hayward flush plugs, probably since the heater was removed.
I’m assuming water flow to these was also shut off which explains the messy pressure side plumbing with numerous ball and gate valves. Which leads to my problem...All summer long I was running my return valve on mix which has introduced water into this plumbing.
So...
1) Would you agree based on this description they are in fact returns?
2) If so, what do I do about freeze protection for these lines? Water is quite cold at this point, so swimming down there is out of the question. I could disconnect unions and suck some water out, but then what?
Thanks everyone.
I installed a new pump in the Spring and decided to re-plumb at the same time. Everything is now much cleaner and condensed in my garage. I’ve attached a pic of current setup. To summarize, 2 skimmer lines (main drains tied in) and 2 return lines.
I was doing some testing last week to prepare for blowing of lines, and was surprised when closing of one side of the return 3-way stopped water flow through the system. When plumbing I had incorrectly assumed 1 return line was for SE return, the other line for the DE return. I did some research to try to determine what might be causing this and came across mention of the “solar recirculating system” plumbed in Anthony/Sylvan pools. This made some sense as I remembered this pool used to have a propane heater. But I still couldn’t figure out why water flow was stopped if water should be flowing out of the DE main drain via the recirculating system. After thinking it through I realized that those two things on each side of the main drain in the DE that I never knew what they were...returns (I think). It looks like they’ve been plugged with the Hayward flush plugs, probably since the heater was removed.
I’m assuming water flow to these was also shut off which explains the messy pressure side plumbing with numerous ball and gate valves. Which leads to my problem...All summer long I was running my return valve on mix which has introduced water into this plumbing.
So...
1) Would you agree based on this description they are in fact returns?
2) If so, what do I do about freeze protection for these lines? Water is quite cold at this point, so swimming down there is out of the question. I could disconnect unions and suck some water out, but then what?
Thanks everyone.