I've been spending more time trying to figure out where these pipes come from and where they go. First I started digging in the pool shed following the pipes that stick out of the ground where they were connected to the pumps and filters. I was hoping one of the pairs went out toward the hot tub. No such luck. I followed all the pairs and can now see that they all go together in one trench.
In this picture you can see the 3 sets of pipes (total of 6) plus the 2 conduit runs (the thin pipes) that take the power to the 2 lights. I had hoped that the reason some of the pipes backed up when I put water in them was because they were connected to other pipes that had valves that were shut off. No such luck, so now I'm thinking some of them may be stopped up. :thumbdown:
I unscrewed one of the nozzles in the hot tub and tried pushing my fishing tape that I use to fish wires through walls into the hole. The tape is 50' long and I thought maybe I could fish it all the way through the pipes and out one of the 6 pipes that are sticking up in the pool shed. No luck with that either. I couldn't get in in more than a few inches.
My wife and I were brainstorming. Since our pool was installed before the era of multi-speed pumps we thought maybe the smallest pump (which was beside what was the heater before the thief) might have been a pump they ran for the heater separate from the circulator pump. Does that sound possible?
With some of the pipes apparently stopped up I was hoping to get some more pressure in the pipes. Currently I've been testing by dripping my water hose into the exposed pipes in the pool shed and hoping it would come out somewhere without much luck. So since I do have one of the three pumps that still run I decided to rig up something so I could connect it to the different pipes, ideally all six of them one at a time to try to push the gunk out. I found this blue tubing stuff that I'm assuming they used for backwashing the filters and hooked it up to the output of the pump. I knew running the pump without water probably wasn't a good idea so I fed the water hose into the pump before I turned it on.
You can see the blue tube filling up with water. The green hose is where I was running water into the pump. I took the lid off the pump filter so I could see how full it was. Since the pool pump can pump water out faster than I can fill it with the hose I just turned it off when it got ahead of the water coming in. Next time I get time to work on the pool, I'm going to hook the other end of the blue tube up to the different pipes. This might help flush out the lines but I haven't had a chance to give it a try yet.
It was a beautiful day to be outside. Actually a bit hot but since I was in the pool shed I was shaded. At some point my wife came out to help me. She was wearing shorts and moving some of the old junk that had been left in the shed. When she picked up one piece of junk a big black spider fell out on her leg. She started dancing and yelling, but she is such a sweet woman that not a single swear word came out of her mouth. I wouldn't have blamed her if it did! She also made me lunch. The hotter it gets the more motivated I am to get this thing done. The piping is taking longer than I expected. I thought at this point I would know what went where and be working on getting new equipment for it. It is all going to be worth it in the end!
In this picture you can see the 3 sets of pipes (total of 6) plus the 2 conduit runs (the thin pipes) that take the power to the 2 lights. I had hoped that the reason some of the pipes backed up when I put water in them was because they were connected to other pipes that had valves that were shut off. No such luck, so now I'm thinking some of them may be stopped up. :thumbdown:
I unscrewed one of the nozzles in the hot tub and tried pushing my fishing tape that I use to fish wires through walls into the hole. The tape is 50' long and I thought maybe I could fish it all the way through the pipes and out one of the 6 pipes that are sticking up in the pool shed. No luck with that either. I couldn't get in in more than a few inches.
My wife and I were brainstorming. Since our pool was installed before the era of multi-speed pumps we thought maybe the smallest pump (which was beside what was the heater before the thief) might have been a pump they ran for the heater separate from the circulator pump. Does that sound possible?
With some of the pipes apparently stopped up I was hoping to get some more pressure in the pipes. Currently I've been testing by dripping my water hose into the exposed pipes in the pool shed and hoping it would come out somewhere without much luck. So since I do have one of the three pumps that still run I decided to rig up something so I could connect it to the different pipes, ideally all six of them one at a time to try to push the gunk out. I found this blue tubing stuff that I'm assuming they used for backwashing the filters and hooked it up to the output of the pump. I knew running the pump without water probably wasn't a good idea so I fed the water hose into the pump before I turned it on.
You can see the blue tube filling up with water. The green hose is where I was running water into the pump. I took the lid off the pump filter so I could see how full it was. Since the pool pump can pump water out faster than I can fill it with the hose I just turned it off when it got ahead of the water coming in. Next time I get time to work on the pool, I'm going to hook the other end of the blue tube up to the different pipes. This might help flush out the lines but I haven't had a chance to give it a try yet.
It was a beautiful day to be outside. Actually a bit hot but since I was in the pool shed I was shaded. At some point my wife came out to help me. She was wearing shorts and moving some of the old junk that had been left in the shed. When she picked up one piece of junk a big black spider fell out on her leg. She started dancing and yelling, but she is such a sweet woman that not a single swear word came out of her mouth. I wouldn't have blamed her if it did! She also made me lunch. The hotter it gets the more motivated I am to get this thing done. The piping is taking longer than I expected. I thought at this point I would know what went where and be working on getting new equipment for it. It is all going to be worth it in the end!
Hope she does not have any nightmares about it!! So sweet of her to help and to make you lunch. You make a good team! 
