Spa spill over circulation

[Mattgintx]

We are starting construction of our pool in about a week. When talking to our pool builder I was surprised when he said that the spa has to have the spillover running while the spa is in use.

to me it seems like you could have a separate pump that does pure circulation within the spa or having some other way to do it. He said if we did a separate circulationit then it would require separate filtration.

we want to be able to run the spa without dumping the warm water into a cold pool and being super inefficient

the pool will have two pumps. One for the water features and main pool and the other for the spa. We are using a pentair intelicenter so it should be able to control any valves that need opened or closed.


any ideas or comments?

 

[Mattgintx]

Also they are recommending a variable speed for the main but a regular pump for the spa pump. Is that a good or bad idea?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Matt,

You either have an idiot pool builder or more likely you just misunderstood him.

When in the Pool mode, a little water is sent to the spa.. This extra water will make the spa spillover into the pool. This keeps both the Pool and Spa chlorinated.. This is a pretty standard configuration. When you go into the Spa mode, water is only circulated between the filter and the spa and it will not spillover into the pool. You can't leave it in the Spa mode forever as then the spa will not get any freshwater and depending on the plumbing may not receive any chloriation..

I would get a large VS pump and use it for both the pool and the spa.. That said, if you have a huge spa, with many jets, you may need a seperate pump for the spa. What size VS pump is your pool builder recommending and what does he say about why he thinks that a seperate pump is necessary for the spa. Are you sure he is not talking about a "blower" that adds air to the spa jets?

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Mattgintx]

Hopefully he just misunderstood me and was thinking I want to be able to run the spa as a stand alone unit during the entire winter completely separate from the pool. They have been building pools for a long time.

They recommended two pumps because of the water features and the equipment pad is a bit further from the spa then is ideal. He said if I have everything running at once the pump might struggle to keep up.

we will have the spa spillover, a separate sheer water fall, 3 pentair magic laminars and the bubblers in the tanning shelf.

he specifically mentioned a pentair whisperflo pump as the secondary. I will get the model numbers on Monday.

thank you so much for your reply

 

[Jimrahbe]

Matt,

With all those water features, you need some way to control things..

I know you won't believe me now, but after the fun wears off the noise will be obnoxious..

You need to ability for the VS pump to know what you want running, and when, so that the proper valves can be moved and the pump speed can be adjusted for each water feature.

Another option might be to use the single speed pump for your water features and the VS pump for your pool and spa.

Good luck with your new pool build,

Jim R.