Recently Bought A House With A Pool And Want Some Advice

[briandilley]

Hi, I'm new to the forum - nice to meet you guys. I've recently purchased a home (in November) and I've been slowly getting the pool into order. When i moved in it was a swamp - i've since gotten it pretty much pristine. The previous owners had the bottom of the pool repainted at one point and it really looks great when it's in top shape. That said, right now the skimmer line is clogged (tons of trees, so i'm assuming it's leaves) and I'm likely going to need someone with a co2 gun come out and clear it - so it's a bit murky right now. But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to show you guys some of the plumbing and ask some questions about it, so here we go!

First, here's a picture of when it's look good:

Ok, so here's my skimmer:

and here's some weird hole, water doesn't come out of it - it might be threaded, i was told it might be for a vaccum which would be great because im tired of running the kreepy krauly and manual vaccum from the skimmer:

here's the plumbing:

Some of the equipment:

1. New wisperflow pump for the pool and spa circulation
2. Old (i forget the brand name) black spa jet pump (under the bubbler)
3. Two Chardonnay valves
4. A very old filter
5. An equally old heater
6. A bubbler
7. Some X10 stuff (X10 sucks) not shown

Close of of the plumbing:

From left to right:

1. from the spa
2. to the pump
3. from the skimmer
4. to the pool
5. from the heater
6. to the spa
7. from the bubbler

Here's from another angle, AND some weird capped off pipes (could this be for that vaccum hole?):

So here are my questions:

1. How might i go about determining what those capped off things are in the last picture.
2. How might i determine what the mysterious hole is
3. How can i tell if the bubbler is working - i guess i do so air in the spa, but the water\air only comes out about a foot, it's not very strong - do i need a better pump for that perhaps? How do you service a bubbler?
4. What can you guys recomend in lieu of X10, preferably something that doesnt' require me to go over to the equipment and manually change valves.
5. Should i bother re-doing all of the PVC here - it looks terrible and it's obvious that a lot of changes have been made over the years. I'd like to add the 'screw on' (for lack of a better word) connectors at various places to keep things nice when changing out components.

Thanks!

[ps0303]

You have a lot going on here. The pic showing the hole in the side of the pool, I would guess it's the line for a dedicated vacuum port. Now the question is where is the other end. It's probably one of those capped off pipes you showed in the picture. The easiest way to determine would be to cut one of the caps off, or drill a hole in one, and blow some air into it. Hopefully you will see some air bubble come out on that hol ein the side of the pool. If so, that is your vacuum line.

Yes your plumbing is a mess and has seen lots of changes do to all of the couplers I see. To clean it up would be a task but can be done. You jsut have to verify and label all of the pipes so when you start making changes you don't forget whats what.

There should be some sort of a button, switch, or something by the spa for the bubbler. Is there any type of controll unit by the equipment?