Polaris Caretaker 5 valve pop up heads not working

[proavia]

Great - just double checking.

Can you feel/see any flow from any of the infloor heads? If they aren't popping up correctly, water may still be passing thru them. Since the infloor heads are your only returns and water is entering the suction side, the return water has to go somewhere.

Be sure both suction and return valves are set to allow all water to come from and be returned to the pool (OFF on both valves pointing toward SPA / the longer handle end pointed towards POOL).

 

[Daviswoo]

Well, if the main drain was connected to the skimmer, it should not draw air into it.

Also, you did not mention if both holes are open. Furthermore, some skimmers have a saucer-shaped item (diverter) in the bottom of the skimmer designed to help adjust the suction flow between the skimmer and main drain. Please refer to this article which shows some pictures as well as describes it. Since you only have 2 suction lines, one is the spa drain and the other is the pool skimmer, and since you have a pool main drain, then the pool drain must be connected to that skimmer line (unless it was blocked off).

Inground Pool Skimmer Plumbing Diagrams

How pool skimmer pipes are connected underground. Common, and old style methods of plumbing pool skimmers on inground pools.

blog.intheswim.com

The first picture in the article is the more modern way of having suction from 2 skimmers and a main drain all as separate lines. Do you have 1 or 2 skimmers? For example, I have separate pipes for suction for my main drain and skimmer. My skimmer also has 2 holes, but one of the holes is plugged off about 3 inches below the hole. I can stick my finger into it and hit a cap. That small cavity fills with debris, so I just pull the debris out with my fingers. The point being all skimmers look the same, but they can be configured differently depending how the PB set it up.

Go down to the section called Combination Skimmers. You may want to consider running your auger down both of the holes to see how far you can get. PS - know this is not your primary concern but good to figure this out as well as why the IFCS is not flowing properly.

BTW - do you have any returns on the sides of your pool or are all the return flow via the floor nozzles?

Read the article and watched a few videos, it seems the main drain will not drain the pool completely if it’s plumped to the skimmer. Somehow, when I removed the short pipe it sucked water from the main drain for a few hours, but stopped when the water line dropped about 1 ft. After then the pump is unable to suck water from the pool side. My pool has extremely high cyanuric acid level. It’s off the limit a test strip could show. I saw the only solution is to drain the pool and refill with fresh water. I suspect the previous owner never changed water. It seems the system doesn’t support draining water with the pump, I have to buy a separate water pump to drain it? Thanks so much!

 

[HermanTX]

It seems the system doesn’t support draining water with the pump, I have to buy a separate water pump to drain it? Thanks so much!

It is recommended to purchase a sump pump - can purchase at HD or Lowe's or online. That way you are not putting the main circulation pump at risk. The only issue is that you need to direct the outflow to an open drain or to a distance part of your lawn depending on local regulations.

I think you have now confirmed that the main drain is connected to the skimmer once you removed that adapter pipe for your suction side cleaner.

As state by @proavia if you have suction via the pool and valve set to return to pool, the flow must be going somewhere even if you cannot see the heads pop up all the way.

With regards to CYA, that is the issue with using chlorine pucks for a long time. Draining is the only solution to reducing CYA. What is your plan after you drain the pool? Have you considered using Liquid Chlorine which does not add CYA to the pool? We can discuss that later after you get the IFCS working.

BTW - you may want to consider getting your own test kit to obtain better data than test strips. Test Kits Compared

 

[Daviswoo]

A discussion on main drains and connection to skimmer

Main Drain Recommendation

I want to start ordering equipment so I don't run into any issues as I start construction. Does anyone have recommendations for main drains? I've been looking at a few stores online and there seems to be dozens/hundreds of options. Preferably I'd like something that a robot cleaner isn't going...

www.troublefreepool.com

Finally figured out the water level is now too low that the skimmer suction is unable to suck from the main drain hole. It can only drain to this level, the rest of it must use a separate pump.

 

[Daviswoo]

The two holes in skimmer are not covered. I guess the reason it sucked air was because I have a short pipe connecting the suction hole to the cleaner’s pipe, thus it raises the suction hole up and couldn’t suck from the main pool drain. I removed that short pipe and now the pool drain works!
I don’t have wall jets in pool, only the IFCS.
Tomorrow morning, I plan to test the outflow of the caretaker 5-valve to make sure the flow that comes out of the 5-valve have enough pressure, as the gauge only indicates the inside pressure not outflow pressure. If the outflow pressure looks normal, I’ll run auger into all 5 pipes to make sure they could pass freely. If the 5-valve outflow is weak, probably need to buy the rebuilt kit.
Look forward to hearing your feedback!
Thank you so much!

Update:
Tested outflow of 5-valve. All have strong flow, thus there must be blockage in all 5 pipes. But the 25 ft auger is not long enough, I ran it through all 5 pipes but wasn’t able to get through any of them. Just bought a 50 ft auger on Amazon, hope this one could be enough.

 

[Daviswoo]

Great - just double checking.

Can you feel/see any flow from any of the infloor heads? If they aren't popping up correctly, water may still be passing thru them. Since the infloor heads are your only returns and water is entering the suction side, the return water has to go somewhere.

Be sure both suction and return valves are set to allow all water to come from and be returned to the pool (OFF on both valves pointing toward SPA / the longer handle end pointed towards POOL).

Yes, weak flows come out of the heads, but not strong enough to pop them up.
I have a small diameter valve that diverts spillover from pool side to the spa. When I turn the return valve fully to pool, the filter pressure goes up from 22 psi to 28 psi, weak outflow from heads, medium flow from the spa.
Thank you so much!

 

[HermanTX]

I have a small diameter valve that diverts spillover from pool side to the spa. When I turn the return valve fully to pool, the filter pressure goes up from 22 psi to 28 psi, weak outflow from heads, medium flow from the spa.

I was looking at this picture again last night. One idea is to insert a valve between the pool return and the spa for the spillover effect. Currently it has a check valve. It requires cutting both sides of that small diameter pipe but rebuild it to include a on/off valve with the checkvalve. This way you can push maximum return to the pool and then every 2nd day or so, open the valve to spillover to keep the spa water fresh. Many people automate this to do it for 20 mins a day so it is not uncommon to have spillover working 100% of the time. So it would still be a U bypass but it would be a 2 way valve and a check valve.

 

[proavia]

I highly doubt the spa makeup line is causing very much flow to be diverted from the infloor system. Maybe the water valve is diverting water to more than one zone at a time.

To the OP, when flow is coming out of the popups, how many of the popups have water coming out? How many total popups in the pool? I believe you already mentioned it is a 5 port water valve.