Spa Blower or Not ? Would like more from spa.

[towney]

I have an in ground spa attached to our pool and I'm not completely satisified with the amount of flow action into the spa. I have been told if I want more flow/aggitation I should use a blower. Would adding a larger pump say to 2.5 hp help due to a 60 foot pipe run to the spa? How would the blower attach into the current venturi system? If a blower is the only option any quality suggestions? See my sig for any other info. needed. Thanks.

Spa:
approx 6x7
4 jets
currently using venturi tube system for spa
pool equipment located approx 60 ft from spa

[mas985]

A spa blower is mainly used when the air intake is fairly far from the spa. The blower helps the jet venturis to work properly with long runs of air pipe. However, the blower does not make the jets stronger it just adds more air to the stream.

If you really want more power to your jets, you need more water flow not air flow and the best solution is a higher HP pump. It is somewhat surprising that your current 2 HP pump is not sufficient for 4 jets even with 60' of pipe run. What size is your pipe? What is the filter PSI when the spa jets are running?

Another solution is a booster pump for the spa so you don't have it running all the time.

[towney]

A spa blower is mainly used when the air intake is fairly far from the spa. The blower helps the jet venturis to work properly with long runs of air pipe. However, the blower does not make the jets stronger it just adds more air to the stream.

If you really want more power to your jets, you need more water flow not air flow and the best solution is a higher HP pump. It is somewhat surprising that your current 2 HP pump is not sufficient for 4 jets even with 60' of pipe run. What size is your pipe? What is the filter PSI when the spa jets are running?

Another solution is a booster pump for the spa so you don't have it running all the time.

The PSI with spa running is 25psi, the pipe size is 2". so a blower would not add anything to the strength of the flow? The venturi pipes are also located directly outside of screen enclosure from the spa too, there is a 1 1/2" pipe with a curved elbow and a 2" with a T-coupling. Pump manufacture told me adding extra HP would probably not increase the flow do to the pipe size. Any other suggestions?

[mas985]

25 PSI is close to 70' of head loss which is pretty high. Even so, a 2 HP full rated MaxEPro will have about 100 GPM at 70' of head which would be 25 GPM per jet. This would seem to be more than enough flow for each nozzle since most jets require only 15 GPM. What kind of jets do you have? Are there any other outlets in the spa, bench, floor, etc?

If your jets require high flow, one alternative would be to replace them with ones that do not require as much flow to operate.

Also, I would agree with the pump manufacture given the pipe size you have it probably does not make sense to increase the pump HP but as I said before, you should have sufficient flow.

[towney]

Not sure what 70' of head loss means, is it good or bad? There are no other outlets just the 4 standard jets. Not sure how to tell what type of jets they are but I unscrewed the cap on one and the opening width is 1 1/2" and the tube going into the spa wall is approx. 1 1/4".

[mas985]

Head loss is equivalent to the friction loss (i.e. water in the pipes loses energy) in the plumbing system. The higher the head loss, the lower the flow rate (GPM) of the pump. However, as I said in a earlier post, you should have enough flow for the jets. 100 GPM should be more than enough for 4 jets.

One thing you could do is find out from your pool builder what jets he put in the spa and if there are any alternatives that will create the action you want. BTW, what has your pool builder said about this?

To increase flow beyond 100 GPM would require replacing some of your pipe which is not an attractive solution. I would focus on the jets and see if you can find something there that will be satisfactory.

One other thing to try is to remove all of the nozzles on the jets and run the spa to see if there are some obstructions that come out. There are usually two components to each jet. The eyeball or spinner near the wall of the spa and the nozzle which is deep inside the spa. You can remove the nozzle with a ratchet extension. If you don't fell comfortable doing this, I would suggest getting your pool builder to do it for you.

[towney]

Many thanks MS985. Here are a few pictures of the jets and spa action. So adding a blower will not help? Maybe I'm asking to much for maybe this is the most I'll get.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/gjsmth/IMG_14301.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/gjsmth/IMG_14311.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/gjsmth/IMG_1432.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/gjsmth/IMG_1433.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/gjsmth/IMG_1434.jpg

[mas985]

I cannot tell from the picture the make of spa jets. They look like standard spa jet eyeballs. The nozzle is deep inside the spa and that is one thing that can be reduced to help increase the force. However, I would get the builder involved to make sure you get the correct nozzles.

From the picture, I cannot tell which of the two pipes or both are the air intake. If you have a single 1 1/2" air intake, a blower may help since it is such a small pipe. However, from your spa picture with the jets on, it looks like there is enough air in the stream so I suspect the air intake is from the 2".

Do you have a shop vac? One good test is to switch the shop vac hose from suction to exhaust and have someone put the exhaust hose into the air intake of the jets and push extra air into the pipe and see if that helps the jets at all. You may need to seal around the hose with a rag so air does not escape. You will see more air come out of the jets but it is unlikely that the jets will be stronger.

One thing to be aware of is that blowers are quite noisy and are best used near the pad, far from the pool, and not where you currently have your air pipes. So I would make sure that you really need a blower since the work and cost involved will be quite substantial. However, I still don't think it would help much.