Spa draining into pool

[ajw22]

Refer to pic below..

Yellow actuator is for your sconces. Irrelevant for this discussion.

Red actuator is for your POOL or SPA suction. Spa pipes are on the left. Pool pipes are on the right. Spa pipe is OFF in picture.

Green actuator is for your cleaner and on spa side of return water flow. It only gets water when spa gets water.

Blue actuator is your POOL or SPA water return valve. Spa and cleaner pipes are to the left. Pool return water pipe is to the right. Spa and cleaner water is OFF in the pic. Spa spillover should not be running.

Red and blue actuators and valves should rotate when moving between POOL mode and SPA mode.

 

[soranen]

Thanks Allen. Spa spillover us running now and is always running until the Spa heater is turned on.

 

[soranen]

I may start by isolating the blue actuator. That does not appear to turn under any condition.

 

[ajw22]

Thanks Allen. Spa spillover us running now and is always running until the Spa heater is turned on.

Some valve is turning to turn off spa spillover when you turn on heater. Find it. That does not happen on its own.

 

[ajw22]

I may start by isolating the blue actuator. That does not appear to turn under any condition.

Blue actuator has to turn to give water to your cleaner which is on left side pipe you say.

 

[generessler]

Your setup looks very similar to mine, which is also Aqualink. I've seen my spa drain with pump off. Though I caused it myself by manually setting a valve, the experience may help you troubleshoot.

If I'm seeing the picture correctly, valves 2 and 4 counting left-to-right are 2-way diverters. The left one controls flow coming back to the pump from drains. My guess is the left side is the spa drain and the right is skimmers and floor drains from the pool (because there are two pipes).

The right valve sends water to either the pool returns or the spa.

If the drain valve doesn't close off the spa side fully (in my case because I intentionally cracked it to prevent winter freezing), then there's a path from the spa drain to the pool drain. Unless the pump is running, the spa drains to the level of the pool.

The pictures don't show whether spa and pool levels match when spa has drained. If so, I'd strongly suspect that the drain diverter valve isn't shutting off the spa drain fully, either because the actuator is mis-adjusted/broken or else because the valve doesn't seal completely. Since you're in Texas, actuator or valve or both could have been damaged in the "big freeze" this past winter.

A lot of this is guesswork. Don't bank on it. But it seems possible.

Good luck! We also bought into pool problems along with a house purchase last year. Keep plugging. You'll figure it out. The people here are helpful.

 

[soranen]

Thanks Gene. The pool and spa levels do not match under this phenomenon. The spa drains quickly to just above the spa jets and stops. This is still around 12" (12 1" glass tiles) higher than the pool level.

 

[soranen]

So, made a little progress with the first effort. In service mode (pump off), I closed the far right valve in the picture and the spa does not drain. Is that helpful to narrow fault?

 

[soranen]

Some other bits of information that may be helpful.
-The pool equipment is well below the grade of the pool. So, there is a good bit of gravity pressure at all times on the pvc lines. ie. pump baskets cannot be cleaned without closing valves to pressure.
-the floor cleaner system does not work. The pool inspector (twice) recommended avoiding it and going with a vacuum as the water flow and floor popups are very weak. His reports mention I would likely not have a good cleaning regimen even if it worked as intended. Incidentally, the previous owner (pool industry employee) had a pool vacuum that did not convey. I thought it was odd to have a vacuum and a floor system but didn't connect the dots as a rookie.
I wonder if the spa drains into the cleaning pipes and can isolate further. The app indicates a "cleaning mode" activation each night. Nothing happens to me knowledge. ie no popups move water to the drain cleaner.

 

[ajw22]

So, made a little progress with the first effort. In service mode (pump off), I closed the far right valve in the picture and the spa does not drain. Is that helpful to narrow fault?

What you closed was your Pool Return. You confirmed that the spa is draining down to the pool return.

Now try the same thing on the three pipes on the other side. Close the valves on the three pipes and open one valve at a time. See which one creates the spa leakdown.

 

[soranen]

Thanks Allen. I opened the pool return and I refilled the spa. I closed all and reopened one at a time each starting from left to right. The spa drains under each scenario. I only closed/opened manual valves. See pics.

 

[ajw22]

Your spa spillover runs when in POOL mode. We need to figure out the path the water takes to your spa when in POOL mode. Something is going on that I don't see yet.

Show me those pipes and valves from the other side.

Show me a birds eye view looking down at your plumbing.

 

[soranen]

Here you go. The cleaner actuator turns normally when Clean is selected. I am not sure if there is a problem with the diverter in there. The other actuator diverter on that side, you tagged in Blue as the Pool or Spa actuator, is on the OFF setting. Manual toggle activates it but it is set to off Middle toggle setting>

 

[soranen]

This poster had an eerily similar issue. I've PM'd him/her but never saw a final resolution so started this thread.

Spa draining. I've checked all of the usual suspects

My spa has recently started draining when the pump is off. When the pump is on the spa has a spillover which functions as expected. I have two Jandy valves with actuators which move for pool mode or spa mode. I removed the actuators and manually moved the valves to ensure they were in closed...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[soranen]

I believe it's significant that it is indeed a similar issue but I do not have paramount cleaning heads in my spa as he/she does.

 

[soranen]

Interesting test here. As mentioned above, this (blue) actuator has been in this condition (vertical handle upward) and set to off. Middle toggle setting like any actuator. The spa drains. I toggle the switch so the handle faces right, turn the pump off and the spa drains. I toggle to the other side so the handle faces left, the pool wall jets activate and the spa spillover runs. I have not seen the pool wall jets move water before so this is a new condition. If I turn the pump off in this condition, the spa does not drain.

 

[ajw22]

For the red, green, and blue valves record what position the handle and toggle switch are at.

Then put the toggle switch to 1 and 2 and record what position the handle moves to, if it moves.

Lets confirm that all the valves work and what position the are set for.

You say the blue valve moves the handle between left and right. So how did the handle get set up?

No valve toggle switch should be in the middle OFF position.

 

[soranen]

Sorry I goofed on the valve but the commentary is the same above. I have no idea how the valve (indicated in circle here) was set to off. I have ALL the settings we've tried returned to normal state. It is facing right below and toggle is off. Pool pump is off and spa drains. As indicated above, the valve works fine by moving the toggle left, right or middle (off). I cannot invoke a setting in my app that activates that valve. In the opposite position below, handle facing left, everything seems to function normally.

 

[soranen]

Your question: Then put the toggle switch to 1 and 2 and record what position the handle moves to, if it moves.
Ok, toggle clicked right so handle is right just as above. Pool runs normally; spa spillover as well. Turn pump off, spa drains.
Toggle to left, handle rotates 180 degrees facing left. Same as above but the pool wall jets are active. Turn pump off in this condition, spa does not drain.
Cannot enable a setting or mode that seems to activate that valve to turn. It has been toggled off since I started this exercise. Handle facing right.

 

[soranen]

Not sure it matters but the salt cell is disconnected at this time. Don't think it would affect a valve but thought i'd offer all data points.