Air Blower

[lucafer]

I have an in-ground spa along with my in-ground pool. The spa has a Polaris QT 1.5 HP blower. And it seems that it's never quite been right since it was installed.

When the air exits the jets, it sometimes just bubbles up in big burp bubbles and splashes water out of the spa.

In trying to see what the problem was, I removed the blower and noticed water at the bottom of the blower pipe (it was still about four feet below the blower just at the elbow where it turns to go to the spa). There also was no check valve.

I added a 1/2lb check valve and the first day, it ran great. Now it's back to either generating the big burp bubbles and/or not really putting out all that much air.

I drained the spa below the jets this morning and blew out the line. Not much air seemed to come out when I put my hand near the jet (no water present).

Question is: do I have an undersized or oversize blower? Or is there something else that I'm missing?

[Pool Clown]

Unless you have an unusual plumbing set up, you shouldn't need a blower.

Did you get the blower when the pool was first built? Or did you get it after?

And does your filter pump run the jets in the spa? or is there a separate pump for that?

When the jets just belch air and with no real force, that actually tells me that the blower is working, it just isn't getting the push of water that it should be getting because there is no flow thru the jets. Maybe its not the blower, but rather a pump or some kind of blockage thats keeping the water from flowing.

[NNJ Pool Spa Owner]

I have a set up similar to your's, except had a 2HP Polaris Blower --and also had issues for the first 3 years of installation. Assuming this was an issue you had from the beginning of the pool, it would sound to me like it's an installation problem.

Here's my two questions, and why I ask them:

1) How far is the pump to the spa? If its very far, then the blower may be insufficient. (mine is 50 ft-- with only a 2 or 3 pipe bends..and the 2HP provides plenty of power -- I would bet tho, that is not the problem.

2) Is your Hartford Loop above the water line? The Hartford loop (an upside-down plumbing "trap") is necessary to restrict the water to travel back the air pipe when the air/water mix is met with back pressure-- like when u sit in front of the jets. This is necessary so the blower isn't overworked pushing water that's in the airline. This is not the job of the check valve. The Check Valve is just to prevent water from going into the blower, at the blower. If the blower is well above the water line, I doubt a check valve is even necessary. This was my problem -- the Hartford loop was in the spa wall, a great idea, but, it was not above the water line-- a mistake by the pool builder-- and it lead to water always in the air line, created constant load on the blower, the spa never worked well, as it had to push water all the time, and killed the blower after a few years. So, check that out.

3) Is the Venturi "T" installed in the right direction? The Venturi T is the plumbing part that mixes the air from the blower, and the water from the jet booster pump. It's plumbed as the pipes enter the spa-- or, like mine: the air and water is mixed at the jets. If your design has a Venturi T, check that out.

4) Blockage: What could it be? A dead animal? A rock or something that fell in during contruction? I doubt it would be that. I imagine you may see what that might be if u use a snake or a blower/string setup that plumbers use to pull wire through pipe.

Disclaimer Note: I am not a pool pro, but I am an engineer and understand the basics. The above things is what I learned about my setup after hours of research-- your situation may be different. I had to find my problem myself, as the pool builder was becoming non responsive -- it did force me to learn a few things. He did fix it finally, when I pointed the problem out. What a difference when it works correctly!

Good luck.