Spa Isolation

[Jayweis]

Hi!

I have a quick question for y’all regarding heating my spa.

When I moved in, I met the pool guy who was maintaining the pool while the house was on the market, and I asked him how to use the heater to heat the spa (he opened “spa suction” and “spa return”). While these settings are applied, my in ground cleaners still run in the pool as well.

So so my question is: am I ok to leave the pump like that all winter, or will the pool start to turn green? If I have to open those valves, is there any other way to heat just the spa and not the whole pool?

Thanks for for your help!

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Here is a picture of the pump for reference

 

[Jimrahbe]

Jay,

Yes, your pool will turn green...

Just so that I understand.. You want to continually heat your attached spa? Does your spa have a foam cover?

I would think that you will need to run in the pool mode several hours each day and maintain the chlorine level and then put the valves into the Spa mode and heat the spa when you want to use it. You will also need to maintain the chlorine level in your spa, if you never run the spill over.

But... I do not have an attached spa, so let's see what our other members have to say..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Jayweis]

Thanks Jim!

Yes I was trying to figure out if it was possible to heat the hot tub without heating the whole pool. I have a Jandy LX heater however it appears that it was original to the pool/house (2002) and the setting to heat the spa actually heats both. I’m just trying to troubleshoot to get around that for the time being.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Jay,

You should be able to heat just the Pool, or just the Spa, or both the pool and spa by adjusting the valves.

The problem is, keeping the spa hot all the time will cost a couple of bucks...

If you do not run the pool it will turn green and if you do not run the spillover the spa will turn green.

Normally, in places that do not close their pools, the pool is always on with a little water spilling over into the pool.. Then when you want to heat just the spa, you move the Intake valve to the spa position and the Return valve to the Spa position.. This just circulates the water in the spa only and allows you to just heat the spa. You would normally do this only when using the spa and the time needed to heat the spa up...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Jay,

I re-read your post... Are you saying that when you are in the Spa mode, the heater is also trying to heat the pool? I am not sure why that would be??? In the Spa mode all the water should be sucked by the pump from the bottom of the spa and then passed through the filter and heater and then back to the spa only..

If this is not happening, then some valve must be in the wrong position. Show us all the valves that control the water flowing out of your heater and back to the pool/spa

I "assume" that the spa is NOT spilling over when you are in the spa mode???

Jim R.

 

[Jayweis]

Jim,

My heater has the options “pool”, “spa”, and “off”, but I tried pool and spa separately today and it wouldn’t heat the spa. The only way to heat it is to isolate. When I have it isolated to spa only, there is spill-over into the pool but I’m not sure the significance of that. Pictures are attached.

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p441/jayweis9/Feature_zpskdeawfba.jpg

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p441/jayweis9/Heater_zpsnfllxgjf.jpg

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p441/jayweis9/spa%20return_zpsyxal1yoe.jpg

If those dont work, here is my page I had to create: jayweis9's Library | Photobucket

Thanks!

 

[mknauss]

Move the suction valve so the OFF is pointed toward the POOL side. Move the return valve so the OFF is pointed toward the POOL side.

Then your water should come from only the spa and return to only the spa. There should be no spillover.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Jay,

In your pics, it appears to me that you have the valves in the 90% pool mode and 10% spa mode positions..

Look at the Intake valve (the one in front of your main pump).. To be in the Spa mode you need to rotate it 180 degrees and then adjust it so that the "off" lettering shuts off all of the water from the main drain / skimmer. Doing this will suck all the water from the Spa floor drains and none from the pool.

If you look at the Return Valve (the one you labeled "spa return"... You need to rotate it 180 degrees so the that "off" lettering is pointed toward the left and shuts off all the water going back to the pool. This will force all the water to go back to the Spa...

This puts your valves into the "Spa mode" so that when you turn on the heater, it only heats your Spa.

The valve attached to the two pipes going into your heater is some sort of by-pass valve for the heater??? It is currently open, so that a lot of the water is not going through your heater. I would rotate that valve so that the "off" lettering was pointed toward the tip of the red arrow in your pic and see what happens. All the water should then go through the heater.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[randytsuch]

I'm pretty sure that the "spa" mode on a heater just changes the target temperature. So you can set a pool temperature and a spa temperature, and switch between the two easily.
Seems kind of silly to me, but that's how my heaters work. The heater just has an input and an output, it has no way of controlling what it is heating.

So trying to use the heater for this is not going to work, you need to change the valves when you want to heat the spa.

 

[Jayweis]

Thank you all for the help and knowledge! I have a few final questions on this issue.
Just to be super clear, which is tough on the internet sometimes, the only way to heat my spa is to isolate the valves, which I now understand. So this means that unless I want the pool to turn green over the winter, I have to essentially start heating from scratch every time I want to use the spa, correct? There is no way to keep the heat in even if I got a cover, because I have to adjust and run the valves to accommodate the pool as well.
I feel like there has to be a way to be able to run the pool and spa pump while heating only the spa right?
Sorry if I’m not making much sense, I’m still new to this!

 

[Jimrahbe]

Jay,

To do what you want to do, you would need two separate sets of equipment. 95% of pools with spas have shared equipment.. this means that you can only have three modes..

Pool mode, where water is sucked from the pool and returned to the pool

Spa mode, where water is sucked from the spa and returned to the spa.

Spillover mode, where water is sucked from the pool and returned to the spa.

Thanks,

Jim R.