Need Help Identifying Valves

[lewiswolk]

Hi all,

New to this forum and would like to ask for some help if possible.

I just purchased a new home and it already had an inground concrete pool.

I have had pools before and I can not seem to determine the correct valve placement on this setup.

I need to figure out what is the bottom drain valve and top skimmer valve so when I vacume I can close the bottom drain.

I already know how to bipass the heater.

My configuration is shown below. Hard to get a clear picture but for some reason they have a shutoff valve going into the pump as well. And they have one valve marked as bipass which I thought would have been one of the drains but now I am not sure.

Any help would be great as I have already left messages for the pool company to call me

[lewiswolk]

One more thing I did notice in the skimmer basket there are two open holes.

The one I attach the vacume hose to and by putting my hand to it and it has suction is the one furthest from the pool.

The closer to the pool one has no suction and not sure if it is supposed to be open or not.

pool filter psi drops from 10 to 3 as soon as I attache the hayward navigator to the line but I am sure this is becasue I have not

determined how to close bottom drain yet while vacuming.

[PoolGuyNJ]

The hole without suction is likely the bottom drain.

Plugging the Navigator into the hole with suction is usually enough.

Navigators create a significant impediment to the flow of water. Such resistance is showing itself in the 10 psi to 3 psi drop. Less water is flowing and so, less pressure is in the filter.

If the pool pump is below the waterline of the pool, that would explain why the valve in front of the pump is there. That condition is also known as a flooded suction. If the valve was open and you removed the pump lid, water from the pool would come out of the pump. Close the valve and the water stops.

Scott

[lewiswolk]

Thanks for the reply. Pool pump is above pool level. If your saying second hole in skimmer basket with no suction is bottom drain should I not have a valve somewhere to close bottom drain ?

Even with no navigator second hole has no suction

[PoolGuyNJ]

With the pump above the water line, that valve is pretty useless.

In the skimmer, are there two screw holes, diagonal to each other? If so, then a special valve goes over both main holes and gets screwed down. In the valve body is a butterfly valve and on top, one hole that can be covered. This allows water from the drain to be pulled into the line that has suction while minimizing (but not eliminating) skimmer draw.

While there are two open ports in the skimmer of which one we know goes to the pump and the other we suspect goes to the drain, the one for the drain offers far more resistance that the water coming in from the skimmer and thus, next to no suction from the drain is felt.

[lewiswolk]

yes you were 100% right. There is no valve for the bottom drain since the pool is concrete and over 30 years old

thanks again for all your help. Now in the process of having someone convert the chlorine pool to a salt water system,

he explained to me what the valves were for. And yes the one going into the skimmer bowl is useless lol.

[PoolGuyNJ]

There is no conversion except for how the chlorine is getting added and the slightly smaller ratio of FC to CYA needed.

Scott

[Pool Clown]

And of course all the salt...