shut down fountain

[tagteamcomputing]

I have a fountain that I think has a small leak and I would like to shut it down. It has one drain and a return that somewhere forks out to two pipes.

If I just turn off the fountain I am concerned that the water will sit in the pipes and grow algae. I have a 4hp shop vac and I was wondering if I could just put that in the fountain returns and blow the water out. If I did that though I dont know where the water would go. So i was then thinking I would take off the jandy valve at the return. If I can find some way to create way to make it tight so the air wont leak out then I could blow the water out to the fountain. However, I would then have water in the pipes from the fountain to the pump.

Soooo, not really sure what to do to shut this fountain down and get the water out of the lines.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Texas Splash]

You certainly can use your ShopVac as a blower. Folks use them all the time to close in the winter and blow-out their lines. I'm struggling to visualize your set-up, but I have a fountain stub-out after the filter. So if I needed to clear than line "to" my fountain/sprayer, I would either remove my 3-way valve top and blow "outwards" towards the fountain, or maybe in my case, with a cartridge filter, empty my filter and push the water backwards into the filter. Now if your fountain has its own drain (return) back to the pump (suction line), then you would have to see if you could blow air from the pump entrance back to the fountain drain "if" you have a way to isolate than line and not push air to other directions.

It can all be a bit tricky since not every pool is plumbed the same way. Might take a little bit of trial and error, adjust a valve or two, but you should be able to give it a good try.

 

[tagteamcomputing]

This is my equipment - it is labeled
Shared album - Tate Goodman - Google Photos

You can see the fountain suction is right by the pump. I can stop the pump and then blow out that way to push it to the fountain.

You can't see the fountain return very well but it is a jandy valve between the heater and the filter.

I suppose if I took both those jandy valves off and blew the water toward the fountain it should clear out all the lines for the fountain.

Any ideas on how I can get my shopvac to have an airtight seal in these valve heads?

 

[Texas Splash]

That is a very nice, clean set-up you have there. As for the ShopVac, you might have to get the hose in as best as you can while using a rag or towel wrapped around the entrance area to help keep the (blowing) pressure going forward down the intended line.