What is this valve?

[bensmail]

OK, so my pool has been out of commission for about 18 months. I JUST got it all fixed, painted and filled. Everything seems OK so far except water and bubbles are coming out of this valve. I always assumed this was a shut of valve for the return with a missing handle and I just want to make sure. I can spin several of the parts easily by hand and they do not seem to stop or tighten. I just want to make sure this is just a shut off valve and not something important like a pressure regulator or something.

The black part at the top spins freely, the light gray part below that spins freely and the white part just below that spins freely. Can I just cut this thing out and put in a patch? Or is it important?

It's in the return pipe after the pump, filter and in-line chlorinator.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[JamesW]

That looks like a garden hose adapter. Someone just needed to plug the hole and that's all they had.

You can remove the assembly and install a 3/4" npt threaded pvc plug.

I would guess that maybe it was the water supply for a pressure side cleaner pump such as Polaris.

 

[Richard320]

My guess is that that used to be a tire valve and they used it to somehow blow out lines. Guess two is it had a temperature probe.

In any case, the simplest fix is to unscrew the garden hose adaptor and install a pipe plug. Some day you might decide you need a connection to run a water cannon or to install a temperature probe.