Newbie - Spa Draining With Filter On...

[saltwater_soul]

Good morning,

We recently purchased a home with a pool. Having never owns a pool before, we are slowly figuring it all out - or so we thought until we tried to heat up the spa for the first time last night. We have a pool with an attached spa with spillover into the pool. The spa also has a hole in the middle for a screw in fountain ( which we have taken out).

With the filter on the spa fills up and spills over into the pool. With the filter off the spa drains down to pool level. Not ideal, but it has been ok - the spa always fills back up when we turn the filter on.

So last night we turned the valves to what we thought we were supposed to do, turn the heater on and the jets came on and the spa heated up, BUT it slowly drained down to pool level.

I have tried all morning to attach photos of our set up but can't seem to figure it out. Help on all fronts would be appreciated

http://flic.kr/p/e3N5H6

http://flic.kr/p/e3N5E8

http://flic.kr/p/e3THAs

I can't get them to show up as pictures, but here are links to the pictures - I hope this works....

[drandolph]

You have a bad check valve or no check valve installed spa is siphoning back towards the equipment and into the pool once equipment is off they are pretty easy to replace also just a fyi looks like from pictures your booster pump is leaking possibly a bad seal I would get that fixed before it gets worse and ruins whole motor.

[Pool Clown]

Is the spa the same elevation as the pool? or is it raised? If it is the same elevation, it will drain or "equalize" an inch or two when used or turned off. This is normal. If it is raised, the water level should stay right at the spillway, however, when you are in the spa, body displacement will lower the water level, noticeable when you get out.

The small line(3/4") from the main return to the spa side return is your "spa by-pass". It looks like you have a check valve (not really in view) and a small ball valve with no handle. Could you take, and post a picture of that line?

When you change the equipment over to spa, you should be turning the two 3 port valves, yes? When in spa, both handles should point 180 degrees from where they are in the pictures.

Photobucket.com is a known site that allows pictures to be posted here.