I got the new heater delivered on Friday. It was a LOT bigger than I expected.. lol. Hauled that thing myself from my driveway through the backyard to the equipment pad using a hand truck. I would have rented an appliance dolly, but there's no way those wheels would have made it over the pea gravel we have between the driveway and back yard. Got it unboxed and sitting on the pad Friday night.
Saturday was my self-paced crash course for plumbing in gas, as well as working with PVC. Hadn't done either before, and I didn't even own any pipe wrenches haha. Shockingly, the gas line was way easier for me, which I didn't expect. The PVC.. total nightmare. Beginning to end. The last owners had a pool builder come out and rip the old heater out when it rusted through. They made a janky loop to bypass where the heater would have been and ripped out EVERYTHING (electrical, automation wires, bonding wire, etc.). They also left me very little excess pipe to play with coming off the Jandy backwash valve, which sucked. I tried to do it the right way.. went out and got a Jandy 3-way valve and a check valve so I could bypass the heater if need be. I got almost to the end and massively messed up, the 3-way wouldn't line up with the return side and I couldn't get it together before the cement set. Result: ruined brand new 3-way. I guess at least I can save it for the o-rings and diverter.
I finally gave up halfway through the day today and just blocked off the tee in the return side and plumbed it straight so I could get the pool operating again. When I cut the pipes Saturday morning, the filter contents and everything ended up backwashing into the pool and made an enormous mess, so I wanted to get that working again ASAP. Managed to only end up with 1 leak, an occasional drip out of the pipe connected to the backwash valve where I had very little old pipe to fuse onto. Plumbing water is NOT my strong suit, I've learned. I didn't expect the stuff to set so fast the first time around, so I learned my lesson and when I plumbed it more directly I marked everything a million times when I dry fit it all. If I get a wild hare to upgrade to a variable speed pump this year, I'll re-do all the plumbing and get rid of that horrible Jandy slide-style backwash valve. I HATE that thing. The leak needs to be fixed regardless but that's a project for another weekend.
Hooked up the electrical this evening, said screw it on the automation for now, and turned it on manually. It was wild seeing everything actually work. Spa went from 70 to 104 in about ~45 minutes. I realize that heated pools and spas aren't much of a novelty around these parts, but for me, I really can't believe I have something THAT nice. I didn't have much growing up (but I am now very thankful for what I DID have), and to have a house of my own with my own freaking pool and hot tub kind of blew my mind for a second there. Honestly a little emotional.. lol. The better half and I spent a while in the spa relaxing this evening, which is the first time I've done that all weekend.
I never wanted a pool before, and especially nothing as complex as what we have here, but man am I thankful for it now.
I’m in my trunks, but ain’t getting in. The kids could care less
