Spa, Valve and Heater

[Zenghaidong]

Good afternoon.
I am a new pool owner (moving to a house with pool). Join this forum a few weeks ago, and got my water balanced. Thanks!

Here is my control panel indoor

Here is my controller near the pump.

Here is the natural gas heater control.


Now during the normal operation of the pool, I found a few questions:
1. During regular operation, I put the indoor controller to "pool" mode.
The return auto valve position is shown below

The suction/skimmer auto valve position is shown below

To me, it looks like the water is supply to both main return and spa return, but mainly get water back from main drain and skimmer (little from spa drain). So when the pump is running, the water level in spa is rising, and overflow to main pool (I think because the water is supply to spa jet, but not coming back from spa drain).

2. when I switch the indoor controller to "spa" mode, the return auto valve position remain unchanged. But the suction/skimmer auto valve position changes to spa drain (show below).

This causes the spa has less supply flow than drain, its flow level keep dropping (see below)


3. When I tried to turn on the heater last night, the heater can only be turned on when internal controller in "spa" mode, and the heater on "low".

Based on above situation, is the auto valves malfunctioned? Where should I begin to troubleshoot?
What is the function of spa/pool switch in heater? Do I have to match the "spa" in the heater with the indoor controller "spa" to let the heater work?
How much will it cost to warm only the spa vs. the pool?

Thanks.

 

[ajw22]

When you put SPA mode on the return valve should rotate to put all the water to the SPA return.

Start by checking the toggle switch on the bottom of the actuator. It has three positions ON1 - OFF - ON2. Check it is not OFF and flip the switch to the other ON position and see if the actuator rotates. If the actuator does not rotate then it is probably a bad actuator.

I believe the SPA/POOL switch on the heater just selects if it uses the thermostat setting on the left or the right.

 

[Zenghaidong]

ajw22,

Thanks for the advice. The return valve IS on off position. When I put it to ON2 (suction valve is on ON1), seems working great!
We are testing the heater, and the kids are waiting the SPA to warm up, I estimate it will be 30 min.
Thanks again.

Haidong

 

[ajw22]