Spa draining when pump is off. Where is my check valve

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Z

zippdroid

0
Aug 6, 2018
26
Clearwater, FL
Last night I noticed my spa at a low level after the pump turned off. The water level was about the pool level and was above the jets still. Turning it back on and turning the spa on did get water flowing back in pretty quickly.

I did some research and saw that it is probably the check valve and needs to be cleaned or replaced. The thing is I don't see a check valve that looks anything like the ones from tutorials or anything. YOu can see my setup here -- Imgur: The magic of the Internet -- The pictures are a few weeks old. Nothing was wet or leaking yesterday.

Any ideas or suggestions would be very helpful.
 
zd,

Notice the "ball" looking fitting that is capped off and goes nowhere, near your filter. That is a check valve.. it is not the one that is causing the leak, but that is what you are looking for.

On the return side there appears to be one on the left side at ground level. The problem is that if that valve leaked, the water should not get past the "Return" valve, unless that was also bad or open a little.

What is the valve that is below the "Return" valve for??? If that valve turns your spillover on and off, then that line should have a check valve in it... I don't see one, so maybe underground..??

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thank you! My pictures aren't great as they were meant for something else and I was just re-using them today. I also just moved into the house about 1.5 months ago, so not 100% comfortable with the pool equipment, setup, or terminology. I did a quick mockup of my current understanding of the layout, and if I have it correct, then I don't think there is anything below the return valve, just bad photos. I will be checking when I get home though.

If the check valve that is capped of is not the issue, what is the purpose of it?

pool .jpg
 
To add on to the above, is it possible I just don't have a check valve? That mixed with the Tampa rain over the last month, and being so busy unpacking, I just haven't noticed it getting as low as it did yesterday? I realllllly don't think this is the case, but I guess it's possible.

Is adding a valve something I should look into if I really don't have one? Am I doing any damage by not having one?
 
zd,

Not sure how I screwed that up as I had your Return valve and Intake valve backward... I think I was just looking for a check valve... :rolleyes:

Anyway, your pictures are correct... If you leave the Return valve like it shows in your pic the spa will drain down to the return eyeballs in the pool when the pump is off unless you have a check valve in the line between the Spa eyeballs (jets) and the Return valve.

The Return valve is really supposed to be in either the Pool mode or the Spa mode, it is not supposed to be in the pool and spa position.

I have no clue what the capped off check valve was for, but in many pools there is a "make up line" that allows some water to always go to the Spa. That line would have a check valve in it. It could be that that was your make up line that someone removed.

I suggest that you fill your spa and then set the return valve to Spa off Pool on and see if the spa drains..

Sorry for any confusion caused by my first post.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
No problem at all! I'm glad you are around and able to help out, even with the confusion. It was a nice excuse to spend a few minutes labeling the valves and whatnot.

Are you able to confirm from my photo that the return is in Pool and Spa? After thinking about it, I'm thinking it is just in Pool mode, and Pool And Spa would be the middle since I tested and can confirm just spa is the other way.

You'll notice in the picture there is no heater. The previous owners had it removed and the Spa is basically just a mini pool. With that being said, your logic is correct and someone removed a whole section of the setup.

Is there an easy/obvious way to see which of the 3 settings the Return valve is set to?
 
I am home now and things appear to be normal with the pump on, however maybe a little less "Overflow" action than normal.

I also checked the valves a bit and took 1 additional picture. In the picture you can see it is labeled Spa Return and Pool Return, and it appears it is in the OFF position for the Spa Return. There is also another "Ball" looking fitting coming from the filter to the return. Is this my check valve that might be bad?


IMG_20180928_141906.jpg
 
zd,

That does look like a check valve.. Before you do anything with it, look at the return valve. It is not fully closed. If you move that valve all the way closed, I suspect that your spa spillover will turn off. And if you turn the valve 180 degrees so that the other side is fully closed your spillover will be full force on..

I suspect the problem is that when the pump is off, the water flows from the spa eyeballs through the partially open Return valve and out the other side and back into the pool via the pool eyeballs.

Turn the return valve to various positions and see if you can get a handle on what it does.

Let us know what you find..

Jim R.
 
That's what we were told when moving in. The house and pool was built in '88. The last owners moved in 4-5 years ago and said they had it removed when they moved in because it was not working and didn't care enough to fix it.

There is no natural gas here, but there is tubing with some gas lines fed through that are cut at both ends where the propane tank would go. I'm guessing they just left them to make it clear for when it was re-installed. That was what the original pictures were in reference to. It is a project we will be hoping to have done in the near future, so any input or anything you see regarding it, feel free to pass along as it could be helpful when having something installed.
 

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Jim,

You are 100% spot on. Closing it 100% turned off the spillover and it was full force when turning it 180.

Just to confirm, my wife did provide some photos taken around the same time of night and the spa was never as low as it was last night or this morning.

So my few questions now are:

1. Is having the Spa return in the full Off position correct?
2. Based on what I learned today, the troubleshooting, and feeling pretty confident this is a new issue, should that check valve that is pretty snug in PVC be my first assumption of something being wrong?
3. If it is the check valve, is there a downside or possible future issues if it doesn't get resolved for a few weeks?


Regardless of if we get it fixed today, thanks so much for taking the time to go over the post and helping me understand this part of the house a little better!
 
It looks like you have two check valves with an arrow pointing to the direction of flow.

The capped line probably was from the heater.

There should be a check valve on the spa line after the 3-way valve. Maybe dig around the pipe to see if there is another check valve.
 
If there's no check valve on the spa line or a bad check valve, the spa will drain if the pool and spa returns are both open. But, the spa should not drain if the return is 100% pool or spa.
 
zippdroid said:
So my few questions now are:

1. Is having the Spa return in the full Off position correct?
2. Based on what I learned today, the troubleshooting, and feeling pretty confident this is a new issue, should that check valve that is pretty snug in PVC be my first assumption of something being wrong?
3. If it is the check valve, is there a downside or possible future issues if it doesn't get resolved for a few weeks?
Click to expand...


zd,

It will not hurt anything to let the spa drain back until you can fix it.

You only have two choices... Turn the Spa 100% off each night, or live with it draining back..

I believe, like James, that the check valve responsible for the problem will be in the dirt under the spa side return input...

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thank you Jim and James.

I'll do some literal digging this weekend and see what I can find. The side of me that is pretty confident this is a new issue tells me I will find one.

If there is a similar check valve under ground that is on the spa side, is the best option to replace it with a similar PVC fully enclosed one, or should I look into the Jandy one which basically all the videos are about? Do either of you have experience with this kind of check valve for a repair rather than replacing it?
 
zd,

I would want to know for sure that there is a check valve... But, even if you find one, you are between a rock and a hard place in how to replace it. There really is no place to cut the PCV that will allow you to take the old one out and put a new one in... It appears to me that you would have to replace the return valve and the surrounding plumbing.. :(

I think that step one is to find the check valve, and then see where you are.

I can't think of any reason that I would ever use a solid PVC check valve. Use a Jandy or don't bother... :p

Jim R.
 
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