I'm about to swap out the old equipment that was here when I moved in. I've got a Superflo VS, Quad DE 60, and Pentair 261050 2-inch valve to go in.
I remember reading somewhere a while back a pretty detailed thread about height of connections and length between bends and optimal sizes, etc.
...and I don't remember where I read it and it's not turning up on a search..
Pool is about 17,000 gallons, no salt water system. Yet, I guess. There's a heater pad to the left out of frame, but no heater and I guess it'd be nice to keep the option open though I haven't wanted one in the few years I've lived here.
Attached is what's there now. Left most line is the two pool skimmers (they're not independently isolated anywhere, it's just both on that line), next left-most is the floor drain. Everything else is probably self-explanatory to you guys. I'd like to basically remove all of this and start fresh. All lines (at least the ones I can see) are 1.5 inch. If it wasn't crazy I'd dig everything up and replace with 2-inch...but that feels like overkill.
The equipment is at about the same level as the pool (maybe a few inch elevation) and maybe 30 feet from it.
I read the directions for the pump and filter. The filter just says, "install it", and the only useful advice in the pump install manual was that there should be a length of 5x of the pipe diameter in front of the pump inlet, and no 90-degree bends right in front of it. Guess the original installer disagreed on my stuff.
I'm fine with the actual plumbing (sawing, gluing, etc.) and electric connections. More, "hey, you want the pump here, so far from the filter and at least a foot below the valve, because..." stuff.
Anyway, how should I expertly plumb it up? I'm trying to remember that thread, something like two 45s were better than on 90 and separate them by a few inches, stuff like that.
I hate those gate valves and want ball valves. Generic box store PVC valves are fine, or should I be buying a pool-specific valve?
Right after I click 'post' on this thread I'm going to buy an Aiper Scuba S1, but I think I'll plumb that booster pump back in (or leave space to do it) in case the Scuba stinks and I'll wish I could use the 280. Or is there something better to do with that booster line and pump? I messed with the 280 for two years and it never cleaned the pool well enough that it wasn't just less frustrating to do it myself by hand.
The floor drain line seems to be made of the same flex material that the backwash outflow is--I've never worked with it before. Anything specific to know, or advice on how to handle it?
And the waste line...I'm maybe sixty or seventy feet from any place the pool waste could go. That waste line in the picture ends just out of frame and when I backwash it just sprays on to the grass and patio and then the pool deck. I'd like to run a PVC waste line I'll trench to a decent outflow spot, I guess...but it's going to be very long. Any reason I can't or shouldn't do that? I'll probably stick an air fitting inline so that I can blow it out in the winter...or whatever else is a good idea. I tried hooking it up the blue flex stuff but that kept ripping and getting attacked by animals and I've gone through four or five hundred-foot rolls replacing it. I'd like a more-permanent solution.
That column tab chlorinator seems like my only option for tabs other than a thing floating in the pool. I don't like it and it's hard to control and it's always leaking, but I guess it's the best solution?
Any reason I shouldn't cut the skimmer line below grade and put the coupler there? The other option is try to ream out the coupler that's there now. I prefer not to ream if I don't have to, but I can.
Unions: I'd like them everywhere so I can isolate, or at least remove any equipment to service it. To remove the pump now, for example, is pretty miserable. Any reason to not go completely overkill with unions? Does it matter which way they face? Are they specific to pool equipment, or any box store stuff will do? The one above the pump now, for example, leaks. I couldn't find an o-ring to fit it, and the female half is pretty chewed up. I thought I'd buy about twenty of them and keep them around for spare parts as needed.
I'd like to glue threaded fittings into all the valve ports, then union all those so I can remove the valve if I need to. Should I not?
I could even move the equipment somewhere else and put in a new pad...but I can't think of a better place for it and doing that would involve running new pipe from the pool to the new pad. That'd be a good excuse to swap it all out for 2-inch pipe, but maybe I should just get over that and get the new stuff set up and running.
Basically if this was your setup, how would you re-do it? Thanks in advance.
I remember reading somewhere a while back a pretty detailed thread about height of connections and length between bends and optimal sizes, etc.
...and I don't remember where I read it and it's not turning up on a search..
Pool is about 17,000 gallons, no salt water system. Yet, I guess. There's a heater pad to the left out of frame, but no heater and I guess it'd be nice to keep the option open though I haven't wanted one in the few years I've lived here.
Attached is what's there now. Left most line is the two pool skimmers (they're not independently isolated anywhere, it's just both on that line), next left-most is the floor drain. Everything else is probably self-explanatory to you guys. I'd like to basically remove all of this and start fresh. All lines (at least the ones I can see) are 1.5 inch. If it wasn't crazy I'd dig everything up and replace with 2-inch...but that feels like overkill.
The equipment is at about the same level as the pool (maybe a few inch elevation) and maybe 30 feet from it.
I read the directions for the pump and filter. The filter just says, "install it", and the only useful advice in the pump install manual was that there should be a length of 5x of the pipe diameter in front of the pump inlet, and no 90-degree bends right in front of it. Guess the original installer disagreed on my stuff.
I'm fine with the actual plumbing (sawing, gluing, etc.) and electric connections. More, "hey, you want the pump here, so far from the filter and at least a foot below the valve, because..." stuff.
Anyway, how should I expertly plumb it up? I'm trying to remember that thread, something like two 45s were better than on 90 and separate them by a few inches, stuff like that.
I hate those gate valves and want ball valves. Generic box store PVC valves are fine, or should I be buying a pool-specific valve?
Right after I click 'post' on this thread I'm going to buy an Aiper Scuba S1, but I think I'll plumb that booster pump back in (or leave space to do it) in case the Scuba stinks and I'll wish I could use the 280. Or is there something better to do with that booster line and pump? I messed with the 280 for two years and it never cleaned the pool well enough that it wasn't just less frustrating to do it myself by hand.
The floor drain line seems to be made of the same flex material that the backwash outflow is--I've never worked with it before. Anything specific to know, or advice on how to handle it?
And the waste line...I'm maybe sixty or seventy feet from any place the pool waste could go. That waste line in the picture ends just out of frame and when I backwash it just sprays on to the grass and patio and then the pool deck. I'd like to run a PVC waste line I'll trench to a decent outflow spot, I guess...but it's going to be very long. Any reason I can't or shouldn't do that? I'll probably stick an air fitting inline so that I can blow it out in the winter...or whatever else is a good idea. I tried hooking it up the blue flex stuff but that kept ripping and getting attacked by animals and I've gone through four or five hundred-foot rolls replacing it. I'd like a more-permanent solution.
That column tab chlorinator seems like my only option for tabs other than a thing floating in the pool. I don't like it and it's hard to control and it's always leaking, but I guess it's the best solution?
Any reason I shouldn't cut the skimmer line below grade and put the coupler there? The other option is try to ream out the coupler that's there now. I prefer not to ream if I don't have to, but I can.
Unions: I'd like them everywhere so I can isolate, or at least remove any equipment to service it. To remove the pump now, for example, is pretty miserable. Any reason to not go completely overkill with unions? Does it matter which way they face? Are they specific to pool equipment, or any box store stuff will do? The one above the pump now, for example, leaks. I couldn't find an o-ring to fit it, and the female half is pretty chewed up. I thought I'd buy about twenty of them and keep them around for spare parts as needed.
I'd like to glue threaded fittings into all the valve ports, then union all those so I can remove the valve if I need to. Should I not?
I could even move the equipment somewhere else and put in a new pad...but I can't think of a better place for it and doing that would involve running new pipe from the pool to the new pad. That'd be a good excuse to swap it all out for 2-inch pipe, but maybe I should just get over that and get the new stuff set up and running.
Basically if this was your setup, how would you re-do it? Thanks in advance.
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