I have to change the valves on the suction side of my pool. They are over 25 years old, and the handles broke off a few years ago. I was wondering if I should do the extra work and replace the elbows with sweep elbows? Would I really gain anything in doing that? Normal pressure with a clean element is around 18-19 psi. It seems when the pool was built in 1998 that's all they used was 90 degree elbows, but are the 90 degree sweeps reduce the pressure? What do you guys think? Thanks for reading.
Sweeps or just stay with the old elbows.
- Thread starter chrger1970
- Start date
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,237
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
You are unlikely to see a difference.
I would not go out of my way to add sweeps. If you were putting in a 90 and could do a sweep instead then do it.
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Sweeps have no benefit in modern low flow VS pump operation.
- Jun 24, 2021
- 16,029
- Pool Size
- 29000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
I would replace any valves with diverters. They can be rebuilt. Jandy, Pentair, Hayward and CMP are all good brands of diverters.
Adding sweeps usually means a lot of re-plumbing as there is a need for much more room. For pipes coming out of the ground, it is so-much work digging and replumbing underground that it really isn't worth the tiny bit of flow you will increase. And, there are many more 90s underground that you can't change.
If you can and want to do it easily, do so, it can't hurt except they are more expensive And be sure to get pressure-rated sweeps, not ones that only have DWV on them.
I'm at that point now. I dug up everything to try and make it happen. I just can't do anything for a couple of days, it's been raining for a few days.