Unable to turn-off main drain. Cant close pool and a freeze is on its way.

[rdelisa]

I'm in the final stages of closing the pool. I've blown out the jets and fountain through the skimmer and appropriately plugged them all up.
I've put the gizmo in the skimmer plug where I blew everything out. The skimmer is completely dry until I attempt to blow out the main drain. When I blow out the main drain it works as it should with lots of air and bubbles coming out the drain. But, when we do the lock-routine, it keeps filling back up with water. I am using a cyclone and blowing the air through the hole shown in the picture. I am air-locking the main drain by turning the valve into the off position while my wife simultaneously shuts-down the blower. (Actually, I've tried the valve in several different positions just in case we have it wrong, but no matter what I do it keeps filling back up with water after the blower is turned off. My filter is turned to the closed position. I will mention that my pool pump is a good 90 feet away from the pool if that makes a difference.

Below, shows my skimmer. I am blowing air through the open hole. The other one is where I blew out jets and fountain.



Below is the valve after I presume is the correct position to have it shut-off or locked.
One side of this valve is labelled VAC and I did prove that it blows air out the vac port in side of pool when on. The other side is labelled skimmer.



We're supposed to get a good freeze Sunday night so I'm in a bit of a panic mode now. Thank you so much for your help.

Rob

 

[Catanzaro]

Something is not making sense. Your Pentair valve has 2 lines attached to it. Your skimmer has 2 ports as well. Please explain the piping at the pump and which side goes where? Also, what about the skimmer ports?

If you blow out the main drain and the air is not locked, water will come back into the area where the main drain is plumbed.

I see you wrote VAC on one side of the of the piping by the pump. What about the other side.

Please explain your sequence on how you closed the returns, skimmers and main drain. Maybe separately as I am having a hard time following it. Thanks!

- - - Updated - - -

One night of freezing temperatures will not do damage. It will take a few weeks of freezing temps before any problems can occur. Where exactly are you that freezing is around the corner?

 

[rdelisa]

I'm in Arvada, CO.. Winter Storm watch is out for late Sunday night. Temps should get down to about 25..

Here is my original post from a few weeks ago with more pictures if that helps:
How do I blow-out my pool lines? Need help understanding my plumbing.


The opposite pipe of the one labeled Vac is labeled skimmer, but the label is very dim. I confirmed the opposite side is Vac and relabeled it. I actually opened up the side Vac port in the pool, turned the valve to the Vac setting and confirmed that I was getting vacuum suction. Normally, I operate the pool with the valve turned to the opposite side (the skimmer setting). I actually never use the vacuum port and have never even used this valve position during pool operation. At my skimmer, there are two ports. The back one farthest from the pool is the hole that has the high suction which I use to vacuum. I never mess with the other port, but this is the one that I blew water through the main drain.

I took the following steps to close the pool: I set the pool to backwash and drained the water below the skimmer line. Then, I turned the jandy valve position perpendicular so both skimmer and vac pipes are off. I left it on until pump was dry. Then, I turned off pump. I placed the Cyclone hose into the back hole of the skimmer and turned it on.. The first thing that happened was high pressure bubbles out of the side vacuum port. I plugged it, then as water started coming out of the jets, I plugged each of those one by one. I put the gizmo in the front hole of my skimmer and vacuumed out the excess water. The hole that I pushed water through was dry. Next, I put a gizmo in the dry skimmer hole which I pushed the water through and plugged it up. Next, I turned my Jandy valve 180 degrees so both pipes are on. I put the blower hose in the open hole with water and turned it on. Lots of powerful bubbles came out of the drain, so I know it was working. Then I had my wife shut the blower off at roughly the same time I turned the Jandy valve back 180 to the off position. The open pipe immediately filled back up with water. Vacuuming it out did nothing. It was as if I was just pulling water right out of the pool.

I agree something doesn't make sense and I'm not doing something right because I really don't understand where all these pipes go. I would love to see an underground blue print. Is it possible that the pipes connecting to the jets in the pool are filling back up with water and getting back into the drain.

Thanks,

Rob

Something is not making sense. Your Pentair valve has 2 lines attached to it. Your skimmer has 2 ports as well. Please explain the piping at the pump and which side goes where? Also, what about the skimmer ports?

If you blow out the main drain and the air is not locked, water will come back into the area where the main drain is plumbed.

I see you wrote VAC on one side of the of the piping by the pump. What about the other side.

Please explain your sequence on how you closed the returns, skimmers and main drain. Maybe separately as I am having a hard time following it. Thanks!

- - - Updated - - -

One night of freezing temperatures will not do damage. It will take a few weeks of freezing temps before any problems can occur. Where exactly are you that freezing is around the corner?

 

[rdelisa]

Success: Pool Finally Closed! Main Drain problem Solved by Catanzaro.

Thanks to Catanzaro. He figured out for me that my main drain does not have any type of valve to turn it off and on. It is part of the skimmer. The only way to do it was to blow it out and then immediately place a plug in to it manually to prevent it from filling back up with water. I screwed the homemade PVC pipe that my previous pool guy used into the drain port. Then, I took it a step further and got the pipe mostly filled with anti freeze before I closed it off. I filled the PVC pipe with about a half gallon. Then, I used the blower for just a few seconds to push the antifreeze towards the bottom of the drain, just until I saw pink bubbles appear. I shut it off, then poured another half gallon down the pipe and pushed some more of it down towards the drain just very briefly once again with the cyclone. This time I immediately plugged the pipe when I withdrew the blower with a #11 plug into the PVC Pipe. I am confident the pipe is filled with a healthy amount of anti-freeze versus water and the rest of my plumbing is as bone dry as it can be.

Much, much thanks to Catanzaro who really cared and took the time to solve my ignorance about my own pool plumbing.

I'm in Arvada, CO.. Winter Storm watch is out for late Sunday night. Temps should get down to about 25..

Here is my original post from a few weeks ago with more pictures if that helps:
How do I blow-out my pool lines? Need help understanding my plumbing.


The opposite pipe of the one labeled Vac is labeled skimmer, but the label is very dim. I confirmed the opposite side is Vac and relabeled it. I actually opened up the side Vac port in the pool, turned the valve to the Vac setting and confirmed that I was getting vacuum suction. Normally, I operate the pool with the valve turned to the opposite side (the skimmer setting). I actually never use the vacuum port and have never even used this valve position during pool operation. At my skimmer, there are two ports. The back one farthest from the pool is the hole that has the high suction which I use to vacuum. I never mess with the other port, but this is the one that I blew water through the main drain.

I took the following steps to close the pool: I set the pool to backwash and drained the water below the skimmer line. Then, I turned the jandy valve position perpendicular so both skimmer and vac pipes are off. I left it on until pump was dry. Then, I turned off pump. I placed the Cyclone hose into the back hole of the skimmer and turned it on.. The first thing that happened was high pressure bubbles out of the side vacuum port. I plugged it, then as water started coming out of the jets, I plugged each of those one by one. I put the gizmo in the front hole of my skimmer and vacuumed out the excess water. The hole that I pushed water through was dry. Next, I put a gizmo in the dry skimmer hole which I pushed the water through and plugged it up. Next, I turned my Jandy valve 180 degrees so both pipes are on. I put the blower hose in the open hole with water and turned it on. Lots of powerful bubbles came out of the drain, so I know it was working. Then I had my wife shut the blower off at roughly the same time I turned the Jandy valve back 180 to the off position. The open pipe immediately filled back up with water. Vacuuming it out did nothing. It was as if I was just pulling water right out of the pool.

I agree something doesn't make sense and I'm not doing something right because I really don't understand where all these pipes go. I would love to see an underground blue print. Is it possible that the pipes connecting to the jets in the pool are filling back up with water and getting back into the drain.

Thanks,

Rob