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drip

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Everything posted by drip

  1. Sounds like a sticking relay. Is the light for the filter pump off on the outside control box while the pump is running? If so go out there put it in service mode and give the panel below the buttons a good solid knock or two, that will usually un-stick the relay although it will probably happen again and will need to be replaced in the future.
  2. The 360 would not be a good idea, it would probably not work very well on a 1/2 inch line and they need all the help they can get anyway. My recommendation would be a "robotic" cleaner, it just plugs into 110 gets dropped down to 24 volts at the control box for it and most of them do a really good job of cleaning the pool. I've only had experience with the Dolphin and it works very good.
  3. You should go with 2 inch minimum suction side and 1.5 is ok for return but I would go 2 anyway. You don't need 2 inch into the pool, take 2 to the pool and reduce to 1.5 to go through the wall. As far as this point: 1. more surface area in the pipe makes the pressure flow into the pool less, thus less pressure means less movement of water and more time for water to get back to the skimmers I have never heard of that before, it makes zero sense 2. Any automatic cleaner you use will run slower and may stop and go and will need an upsize adapter to 2” this one also doesn't add up, the cleaner is just fine at 1.5 all the way from pump to pool 3. all inlets and outlets in the pool wall and floor are factory cut for 1 ½ “ so an extra $600 will be added to the price to up size these openings. see number 1, it shouldn't cost much to add about 5 or so 1.5 to 2 reducers to the bill It really sounds like you need a different plumber, I've seen some horribble plumbing jobs out there that make a pool a pain rather than a pleasure
  4. Hi, is the heater actually lighting? do you feel heat from the vent area? If it is and then it sounds like your flame sensor is not working or and this is more likely, the gas orifice feeding the burner that the flame sensor is over is plugged, spiders love to build webs in there, you sound mechanically inclined so I won't go into how to clean them. Also you might try adjusting it to get into the flame better. If it is not lighting and just cycling 3 times then AGS then it sounds like your igniter is bad, to test just pull it out just your gas valve off and try to fire the heater, it should glow red hot. FYI some of the most frustrating problems with heaters when you can't find a bad part is those clogged orifices. Oh, and gas valves very rarely go bad. If none of this works and someone else can't give you a solution I have a Jandy LX factory troubleshooting flow chart that I'm sure could help you get it figured out, the best I know how to do is to scan it into my comp and email it to you. Let me know.
  5. First nearly all light niches are the same aside from being "spa" or pool sized. I don't know about the Hayward ones, I can say that when at the pool and spa show a year ago of all the ones at the show the Colorglo from JandJ Electronics seemed to be the brightest and most reasonably priced. They only sell the led bulbs though, you would have to supply the fixture but it is usually still cheaper. their web site is colorgloledlighting.com I have sold many of these and never had any complaints, everybody loves them and they have the best warranty also 5 years.
  6. I like waterway better than pentair for spa jets. They are making some now that are a 4 jet manifold that would supply one person, 2 on upper back and 2 on lower. I havent seen them in use yet, they are pretty new but it will probably be the standard before too long. I wouldn't tear out the pentair ones only to put in basic waterways either and usually all the jets in a gunite spa are at the same level, the seat height will sometimes be manipulated, but it is pretty rare.
  7. You should just use a regular garden hose nozzle to clean the grids. If you are talking about them coming loose from the brush while brushing the pool and then getting in the filter then there are better brushes out there. I would go to a pool store and ask for the one that they send out with their pool cleaners to use. The ones we use last about a year or so each (from my experience) and they are used many times a day and rarely lose bristles, the back of them will break before that. They are usually blue bristles and not white, probably just higher quality idk
  8. just be absolutely sure it is GFCI protected. Do not apply power to it unless it is. It won't hurt to turn the pump on for a second just to see if it works. You may have to get the air out of the pump or pumps after filling, to do this just open up the discharge pipe going into the pump untill water comes out. Hope it all works out for you
  9. FYI Our local rep from pentair mentioned about a year ago that they were having problems with their pool lights leaking at where the cord comes in the back. That is not a serviceable area. I would definitely try pentair, they are usually very good about backing their stuff.
  10. I know a guy with a pool that is almost identical, he has not had any major problems with his. His pool did develop some decent cracks but that cannot be completely blamed on the design. Long pools do tend to crack more but just go liberaly on the rebar. Another problem might be that a pool sweep will not do the best job on that design and lastly, put plenty of returns in the pool, I would treat it like 3 different pools, dead spots in circulation will be a headache for years
  11. You have a pressure side pool sweep so that part is working fine. Your problem sounds like is only with the polaris itself. There are many things that can cause it to tangle and not work well, here are some common ones. You will get wet doing this but with the pump for the polaris on pull the polaris out of the water and see if all the wheels are turning, if not there is a problem with it, and there are several things that could cause that. Is the tail moving wildly? or just barely Are any of your swivels spraying water out when running? do they swivel easily? Is your wall screen in the fitting that plugs into the wall of the pool? Do any of the wheels feel loose? Is the hose on the polaris so long that it extends past the farthest point by more than a couple feet?
  12. It looks like I need to give solar panels another chance...I will be checking into those Fafco ones. If the pool and spa were kept separate and did not share water then two different temps could be maintained but the only time I've seen that setup is when both bodies of water had their own pump, filter and heater. It would be possible to do what you are wanting, valves could be put in that would keep them separate and they could be turned manually to do exactly what you are doing but the downside would be that one body of water will always be stagnant and may not be freeze protected. I would call a control system manufacturer like Jandy or Pentair and tell them what you are wanting and they may have a solution for you. I am assuming you want the system to maintain the heating automatically so you don't have to go out there 2-4 times a day. The Pentair Intellitouch would probably be the most likely to handle that. Hot water chemistry is much more demanding, if the temp is to be kept at 100 in the spa all the time then you would want to use bromine in the spa and chloring in the pool. One other crazy idea is that if you are going to be installing the spa would be to have it plumbed with a dedicated suction and return for a small circulation pump that could feed a relatively cheap heater. This way your spa would maintain heat, and if you are going to maintain 100 all the time a large heater is not needed as long as you keep the spa insulated. You would then use your larger pool pump to create the jet action in the spa. This is the way most portable spas are done and it has proven to be a pretty effecient way of heating.
  13. Economy mode on a spa refers to the times that the tub will heat. In economy it will only heat during a filter cycle. Standard mode means it will heat whenever there is a heat call. I don't have a spa but most people I run into working on them keep it in standard. I would think that if you use it regularly standard would be best and if you go on vacation economy and a lowered temp would be best. I suspect that there is some saving to useing economy though. It does not affect filtration. If you are new spas one thing that will prevent a LOT of problems is maintaining a proper ph....that can't be stressed enough
  14. A heat pump will cost considerably more and are usually less than 200kbtu. They are not good for "on demand" heat like a spa might require. The price difference is about 2x the cost of a gas heater, approx. 5500-6500 installed would be about right if the electrical is there. In my opinion, gunite/concrete spas are nice to look at and the waterfall effect into the pool is nice but they just can't compare to portable spas as far as their ease of use and they are much cheaper to build and maintain heat than a pool/spa combo. To add a gunite spa to a pool will probable anywhere from 18k to 28k. A very nice portable will be around 10k and they are much nicer to sit in. But if you do add an inground spa it would be difficult to maintain 2 different temperatures, one in pool and one in spa. A heat pump can heat a spa to 103 but for inground spa heating a gas heater is usually the best way to go. Heat pumps are very slow heating but very efficient to maintain. Usually pool/spa combos do share water and are kept at the same chemical levels, very rare that they don't.
  15. Maybe I should have said flow restrictor, not flow diverter, either way it does work in this situation to force the main drain to work, there is a float in it that will drop if the water level gets low and then draw only from the main drain. The suction from the pump will hold the float down.
  16. Hey, I live in Texas so my opinion may not apply to a Cali. situation but here it is. I've seen several pools with solar heat and have yet to see someone happy with it, mostly they've been disconnected due to leaks or just not working very well. Nothing can compare to a gas heater as far as heat on demand and if you have a spa it is the only way to go. If you just have a pool and no spa and want to extend your swim season a heat pump would be the way to go. The savings can be significant, for example here in Dallas to heat a pool with 500 feet surface area (lengthXwidth) to 82 degrees from March to November with a heat pump would be approx. 600 dollars with a pool cover or 1034 without a pool cover, cost is for the whole years use. Natural gas for the same pool would be 1260 with a cover and 2720 without. Propane would be significantly more. These figures were given to me by a Raypac representative. Raypac manufactures pool/spa heaters. They say March to November because when it is below 50 degrees heat pumps quit working and they don't recommend heating with gas either because the heaters condensate more, although everybody does anyway. I would find a local company who can call Raypac and they can punch in your pool stats and give you an estimate cost of use for your pool and climate. Other manufacturers may be able to do this but I don't know.
  17. Hi, you are probably right, the hole on the pool side of the skimmer if it is not plugged (you would need to reach down and make sure it is not) if not plugged it does go to the main drain. What you would need if a flow diverter to force the pump to pull from the main drain. Your local pool store should have them, they fit in the bottom of the skimmer over both holes. If it is a very old style skimmer you might need to use a vacuum plate, it also goes in the skimmer but sits at the top part on a lip there. Hopefully this helps you. There usually aren't any valves on the suction side of this type system. Sometimes just a vac hose with a vac head upside down on the bottom of the pool and hooked into the suction line in the skimmer works best when trying to clear water up of get rid of algae, but that flow diverter works good for daily use.
  18. Hi, I don't like the Northstar pumps, they are hard to work on, rather harder to work on than other pumps like the whisperflo or challenger and I haven't seen the tristar out in the field yet. My main beef with the Northstar is that it is easy to block it in with plumbing due to it's size, another thing I've seen is that the internal parts have had trouble but they may have fixed that. Of the pumps you mentioned the Whisperflo has the best track record and I would go with it. If you can afford it the new Intelliflo pumps (by Pentair) are very good also and will pay for themselves in energy savings, but you would need to check with your pool builder to see if they can set it up properly for you. Any size heater will heat the spa but it is usually best to go with the largest you can afford, a 250 depending on the size of the spa may take an hour to an hour and a half to reach temperature, a 400 usually only takes about 20-30 minutes, well worth the extra money up front, usually about 300-500 more for the 400. My opinion of the best brands for pool equipment out there now are Pentair pumps, filters and control systems, and Raypac heaters. I base that on 8 yrs of working on all of them
  19. Hi, there are only 3 possibilites I think. One, the water in the pump housing is frozen, even if only slightly it will keep it from going as pumps have very little power when starting. Two, the start capacitor is bad, I believe on the Sta Rite it will be in the hump on top of or slight top/side of the motor. Cut power to tub just two screws to remove cover over capacitor, only two or three wires on it, be careful there is a remote possibility the capacitor held a charge, pry wires from it and take it to an electrical supply store and they can test it there. Three, the motor is just plain bad, whether bearings locked or bad winding it is usually best just to get a new motor or depending on the age of the pump, a new pump.
  20. I don't own a tub but I do work on them regularly here in Texas. From what I've heard it should cost about 30-40 a month to keep it hot, probably 40-50 in Cali. because of higher electricity. It can make a big difference whether the tub is in the shade or in full sun and the tub should definitely have a good cover on it. I can't say whether the spa is working fine or not, but I would trust your repair man. Some tips though to reduce the cost, one would be to put it in economy mode, this will make the tub only heat when in a filter cycle. The better idea though would be to reduce the filter cycle time....30 minutes should be enough to keep it clean as the circ. pump will be filtering 24hrs a day anyway, if not then increase it. If none of this helps and you think there might be something wrong then check the amp load on the tub with an ammeter or have someone do it, one while the heater is off and then again while it is on.
  21. Hi, at a heater training class a couple days ago they mentioned that the law had been changed to allow 107. If you can prove this to somebody with the know how to change your spa they shouldn't have a problem changing it for you, although most late model ones don't have the ability to go over 104 without rigging. I've heard some silicone on the wet end of the sensor will give you a couple more degrees.
  22. First, if you are the original purchaser the spa will still be under warranty and you should be able to get someone out to check it out.(sundances have a 5 year warranty from delivery date on equipment) Does the filter cycle turn on the 3rd pump? If so it sounds like a board issue, if not then I would make sure the filter cycle run time is not set to 0. Filter cycles should start at 6am 12noon 6pm and midnight and run for the set amount of time. One thing to always try is just to shut the power off to tub for 5 minutes and then restart. Oh, also check to see if the 2 speed is just valved to the "mambo" jet....sometimes it will seem like the pump is not on because the back jets are not working and all water is diverted to the big jet.
  23. Hi, Jack's Magic makes some products that claim to be able to take out existing stains although the procedure to use them properly can be sometimes complicated. I have used some of their products and they do work if done properly and none require draining. search jacks magic and check out the products The Iron, Cobalt & Spot Etching Stuff™ and The Copper & Scale Stuff™. I have used both and they both work, you just need to determine what type staining you have.
  24. Hi, I'm looking to get liability insurance for a company I am starting. Other than IPSSA what are the options out there? I'd be needing at least a million dollar coverage. Thankyou all for your advice
  25. Thankyou for your suggestions, I will be waiting on opening a store. Have you or anyone you know ever used poollistusa.com. they claim to have several thousand residential pools and seem to have reasonable rates ($70 for 1000 customers) Anyway thankyou both very much for your time and experience
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