Proper circulation in shallow beach entry

[beary]

I have a concern that our pool will not circulate the water well enough in our 4 inch beach entry to keep it clean. My son who has some pool cleaning experience says that algae can collect on stagnant areas as well. Our pool contractor says he could put one of the pool jets on our beach entry, but that seem like a lot of flow for 4 inches of water. He has been building pools for 30 years, but these shallow entries are new to him. I was wondering what everyone else with shallow entries are doing.

Thanks

Beary

[joelq]

Hi Beary,

I've heard of some people putting bubblers in to encourage circulation. I'm not sure how those would work in a 4 inch depth.

My builder is positioning a return just to the side and aiming it towards the beach entry. He says this should take care of any stagnation.

We shall see. :)

[GTakacs]

I'm just in the process of having a pool with beach entry built. The builder puts a return head in the beach entry to the side shooting across the beach entry area. It is in the floor, not in the wall.

I'm also adding a foam jet to the middle of the beach entry for looks but it should help with the circulation also.

[beary]

What is a foam jet?

Beary

[imfignewton]

Use one of these adjustable infloor returns for tanning ledges or beach entries.

Sta-Rite HWDSP1425S adjustable in-floor return
Hayward SP1425S adjustable in-floor return

[GTakacs]

What is a foam jet?

It's a bubbler made by Watercrystal Fountains. http://www.watercrystalfountains.com

[baseballmom22]

We're putting bubble jets there as well.

[beary]

Those are the kind of ideas I was looking for folks, thanks. Part of my concern was the contractor wants to put in all the same type of returns. I don't know if there is a fear of different flows that can restrict the pump or what, but I sure like the ideas you've tossed at me.

I've asked the contractor to have each return have a seperate value at the pump incase some day one fails or leaks, then I can just turn it off. I found he does that anyway, but can these floor returns or bubblers change that design?

Thanks again.

Beary

Edmond Ok

[GTakacs]

I have not heard of having separate valves for each return at the pump. The returns are generally done in a return loop fashion so all returns are on the same pipe. Builders though have separate valves for each drain and skimmer so you can control how much of the water is sucked at which skimmer and main drain for better circulation.

My beach entry in-floor return will be on the same loop as my other 4 returns for my pool (it's a 14,000 gallon pool approximately). The foam jet will be on its own line controlled by a 3-way jandy valve with a JVA, so I can divert some or all of the flow from the main returns to my water features (which includes a foam jet in the beach entry and two crown jets in the decking).

[Simmons99]

You stated that your builder isn't really familiar with a beach entry.

Stupid question - but why would you choose a company that isn't very familiar with all the options you want on your pool?

[beary]

It's a good question. We interviewed about 8 recommended contractors and he seem to have the most experience with good answers to all our questions. We talked to some of his past customers and they like him a lot, especially his support after the pool was built. None of them seem to have any big issues. He uses people he has used for years because he knows the quality of their work. He back that up by telling me why he didn’t other crews. Information I already knew.

He knows I read forums and has been very open to my questions that I learn from here. He even tells me that if I can find better prices on equipment to go a head and buy it.

Talking with all the contractors, beach entries are kind of new thing in our area, so we couldn't even find one to look at accept at a brand new demonstration pool. My contractor has done some shallow areas in pools (tanning ledges?) and he likes to use normal returns in them to keep circulation in the area. I trusted him on that, it was my son who was questioning the idea because he has worked with pools with poor circulation areas. A normal return just seemed like a lot of water coming out in a shallow area, so I was wondering about other ideas. The bubblers are very interesting and I will see what my contractor thinks of them. Likely he has installed a few, but we didn’t know. I think we thought they were fountains.

I appreciate all the help from you guys.

Barry

[DaBomb650]

Beary,

I noticed you are in Edmond Oklahoma. So am I, We are also having a pool installed. Who did you contract with? E-mail me if you wish, I would like to hear of your experiance thus far.
Carl.