Uneven spillway flow? Try this!

[StevenP]

I have an in-ground salt pool with attached spa. There's a spillway between the elevated round spa and the pool. It has 3 flat adjacent (no gaps) marble tiles that the spillover flows over and into the pool. I get a decent flow and good chlorine levels with my VS pump set to about 2400 rpm (standard operation).

BUT, the water over the leftmost tile tends to dribble over the edge, while the other 2/3 of the spillway makes a nice waterfall. Of course, cranking up the pump speed to 2800-3000 gives a more uniform waterfall, but that's a bit wasteful and nonideal. I also didn't want to reset or grind down the slow spillover tile.

SO, I put my thinking cap on, tried an easy fix, and it worked! Here's what I did: after the pool shut down for the night, I took a candle and rubbed it along the front edge and forward top portion of the 'slow' tile. I used a white candle and rubbed fairly hard. The applied wax was invisible. Turned on the pool, and now I have a uniform spillover across all 3 tiles.

The wax repels water and keeps the slower spillway section from 'sticking' to the tile. This is a really easy and quick and cheap fix if you have a spillway that's just a bit uneven.

 

[StevenP]

P.S. Let me know if this works for you. It evened out my spillover nicely, but I'm curious if it helps others. thx!

 

[Puhl]

At nearly the one year anniversary of this original post, I was searching online for what I figured had to be a simple solution to lower the required flow rate to create a good spillway effect. At the risk of dredging up a dead thread, I figure this one deserves to be, since it is so effective and may help someone else.

Similar to the OP, I figured the very slight difference in spillway heights was the culprit.

Steven’s simple solution is genius, and it works! I rubbed a candle in the “lagging” section of the spillway, and it has enabled me to run the pump at 350 rpm lower than before. For my Intelliflo, that translates to 35% less energy draw.

BTW, I have been lurking (deeply) in these forums during the lead up to our pool startup, and wanted to thank everyone for their selfless contributions to make the “unknown” very manageable. Am currently bringing up to balance the Cl/pH via TFT-Pro Salt kit and hoping the kids can have their first dip into the spa in a couple of days!