Winterizing nightmare

[Poolbythesea]

Hello,
We bought a home with a pool this summer. It’s a 27500 gallon in-ground gunite pool. It was built in approximately 1990. I paid a company to come out and open it and tried my best to watch them do what they did. It took a solid three weeks to get the water clear. There was about three big garbage cans full of leafs and I put approximately 40lbs of shock in the pool to get it clear. All summer I kept wondering if the main drain was working because of how difficult it was to clear the pool.

now it’s time to winterize and I’m having trouble with the main drain. I’ve blown out the returns, the wall vac, the skimmers and the spa, but no matter what I do, I can’t even get a single air bubble to come out of the main drain. I startedwith a shop vac, which cleared the other lines, but nothing. Next I hooked up a 150psiair compressor, and I’m not getting a single bubble out of the main drain.

The plumbing on the vac side has a jandy valve on the wall vac/shallow skim, a pipe labeled “M.D. Spa” and a deep skim. I’be been under the impression the spa and the main drain are on the same line. I can’t figure this out. Even if it was clogged, the air compressor should have been able to clear it, right?

Please help. Thanks.

 

[Jimrahbe]

P.

The Spa drain and Main Drain would never be on the same line.. For the spa to work, the spa drain can only go to the drains in the spa.. Period.

Do you actually have a Spa? Does in have covers in the the bottom for a drain.. I have never seen a spa that did not have a drain.

I "assume" your automated valve selects between your Vac line and your shallow end skimmer..

My guess is that your pool's main drain is plumbed into the bottom of a skimmer and not the equipment pad.

Edit... go look under your skimmer baskets and tell us what you see..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Poolbythesea]

Here’s a shot of the pool.

P.

The Spa drain and Main Drain would never be on the same line.. For the spa to work, the spa drain can only go to the drains in the spa.. Period.

Do you actually have a Spa? Does in have covers in the the bottom for a drain.. I have never seen a spa that did not have a drain.

I "assume" your automated valve selects between your Vac line and your shallow end skimmer..

My guess is that your pool's main drain is plumbed into the bottom of a skimmer and not the equipment pad.

Edit... go look under your skimmer baskets and tell us what you see..

Thanks,

Jim R.

Spa.

 

[Poolbythesea]

Here’s a shot of the pool.

View attachment 164729Spa.

P.

The Spa drain and Main Drain would never be on the same line.. For the spa to work, the spa drain can only go to the drains in the spa.. Period.

Do you actually have a Spa? Does in have covers in the the bottom for a drain.. I have never seen a spa that did not have a drain.

I "assume" your automated valve selects between your Vac line and your shallow end skimmer..

My guess is that your pool's main drain is plumbed into the bottom of a skimmer and not the equipment pad.

Edit... go look under your skimmer baskets and tell us what you see..

Thanks,

Jim R.

Sorry, I’m on a phone and the formatting is bad. My photos are too big to upload, I'll work on that and post them. That shot was the spa. It has two drains. Each has a capped slot and an open slot that was able to be blown out and gizmo'd.

Both the shallow and deep end skimmers have two holes at the bottom. One was blown out and is obviously on the suction side. The other is some sort of equalizer, but when I blow into it with the shop vac, I'm not getting any bubbles anywhere, so I have no idea where that draws water. Also, I isolated everything in the equipment room, shut all the valves on the suction side, and I blow into the suction on the deep end skimmer, and I'm getting nothing. No matter where I blow, I cannot get bubbles from the main drain in the deep end.

 

[Poolbythesea]

 

[Jimrahbe]

P,

When skimmers have two open holes, normally one goes to the equipment pad and the other goes to the main drain.. Usually the hole closest to the water is the one piped to the main drain.

It is not uncommon for there is be a problem with the main drain and for it to be capped off right at the main drain. If you know which hole in the skimmer goes to the equipment pad, then you know the other hole has to be either... plugged, connected to the main drain, or to an equalizer port.. Equalizer ports are in the pool wall, right below the skimmer, about a foot down and are very obvious.. They may have eyeballs like pool returns, but are obviously connected into the bottom of the skimmer..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Poolbythesea]

P,

When skimmers have two open holes, normally one goes to the equipment pad and the other goes to the main drain.. Usually the hole closest to the water is the one piped to the main drain.

It is not uncommon for there is be a problem with the main drain and for it to be capped off right at the main drain. If you know which hole in the skimmer goes to the equipment pad, then you know the other hole has to be either... plugged, connected to the main drain, or to an equalizer port.. Equalizer ports are in the pool wall, right below the skimmer, about a foot down and are very obvious.. They may have eyeballs like pool returns, but are obviously connected into the bottom of the skimmer..

Thanks,

Jim R.

Thank you. So I have blown air through the line closest to the pool. Nothing is coming out anywhere in the pool. That line fills with water and before I drained the water down below the skimmer basket, it would fill up the whole skimmer. I thought it was an equalizer, but there is only one equalizer hole in pool, directly by the spa. I blew into the equalizer from the pool with the spa hole capped and nothing happen in either skimmer.

I don’t understand how it can draw water if it’s capped, but if I’m not getting any air bubbles from the main drain when I blow into it, it must be capped?

 

[Jimrahbe]

P,

Let's see if Jim has any other ideas... Calling @jimmythegreek


Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[jimmythegreek]

The main drain is likely failed and plugged up. It's very common on older pools actually. I'm having trouble following your pics and description. Your plumbing is not typical of a pool spa combo. This equalizer by the spa is it under a skimmer? What was that tied to?
If you have a shop vac remove filter and suck the water from the line. Then stick a fish tape in it amd see if its actually piped down somewhere. If so I would use a small tubing to assist in removing as much water as possible from pipe and then dump 2 jugs of RV antifreeze in the line and cap it. You can address the clog or failure next summer

 

[Poolbythesea]

Jimmy,

Thanks for you input. The pool has four lines on the vac side: wall vac and shallow skim are on split on one line with an electric switcher valve, then a line for "Spa M.D." (which Jim is telling me is likely only the drain for the spa), then one for deep skimmer. On the return side, I have an input for hot water which is disabled, a return for hot water (back to the boiler in the house, but again, not activated) and then a valve to split between returning to the pool and spa.

There is an equalizer on the wall that separates the spa from the pool. It appears to just be a straight pipe between the pool and spa and it's plugged up with a winter plug. There are no equalizer holes under the skimmers. The only holes in the pool walls are the three return jets, the wall vac and the spa equalizer.

I had no trouble with blowing out the returns, the skimmers, wall vac and the spa drain when I hooked up an air compressor to the drain valve of the pump (closing the sand filter and return lines). However, I never got a single bubble from the main drain at the deep end.

The skimmers each have two holes, the one furthest from the pool is clearly pipped to the equipment room suction side, because I had no trouble blowing it out. When I had the pool water drained level enough with the skimmer that it wasn't coming in, I shop vac'd all the water out of the skimmer. Then, I tried to blow the water out of the hole closest to the pool. No bubbles came out from anywhere in the pool, but when I pull the hose out, water fills the skimmer to the level of the pool.

I also sealed off the suction side hole in the skimmer, closed off everything else on the suction side, and blew it out with the air compressor, no bubbles anywhere in the pool. I'm thinking of getting a threaded connector for the skimmer to directly hook it up to the compressor and try to blow out that main drain if that is what that hole closest to the pool goes to, although I don't know if the shop vac should have been strong enough to get some bubbles...I had it right on there with an adapter, I should have gotten something? Right?

 

[jimmythegreek]

If the water level is below the skimmer opening, and the water entering the bottom of skimmer is thru the "other" port with the suction line capped off, it has to be open somewhere. If the water equalizes after vacuuming your not getting enough pressure to burp the main drain.