Pool construction woes #1

[PoolDoc]

Chad,

I'm going to alert Waste and Waterbear about your post, and see if they want to look at it. (I've seen your diagrams, but I need a higher contrast version of those to post. I tried photo-editing them, but the JPG artifacts show up when I do. Maybe, you could redraw or trace over them with a black pen or Sharpie? And, send higher resolution versions, that could be edited?

But . . . honestly, you have a mess. Your builder doesn't know what he's doing. To set up the bypass with IC20 is wrong in at least two major ways. First, the IC20 should be receiving FILTERED water -- I asked Pentair about this to be sure. Second, that's an uncontrolled, unbalanced bypass, and almost all your flow is going through the IC20, which is why you can' t filter. And, that is a SIMPLE problem; to goof that up is a bonehead mistake.

Trying to make sure all of your flows are properly balance is substantially harder.

But, the problem for me is, I don't know how to do this sort of piping, myself. I've done some pretty complex commercial piping, but it's a different set of problems. And, I've never done this sort of thing. Given the way I work, I would estimate I'd end up putting in 8 - 12 hours of finding hydraulic data on your components, calling manufacturers and then finally doing calculations before I could tell you how to fix your mess. I don't have that kind of time right now, certainly not for a 'freebie'. I can guess what the solution, or at least a solution, would look like. And my batting average on those kinds of guesses has been good over the years. But before I'd take your money and guarantee that your pool would work as planned, I'd have to spend the design time. Without it, I don't have the experience to be sure.

I'm not sure what to tell you. But if it were me, I'd call a halt to construction till I had a good design and plan I was confident in. If there's someone local who is knowledgeable, you probably need to get them involved.

Over the years, I've seen more pools with screwed up hydraulics than not. And that's with simple pools. The problem is, hydraulic mistakes end up "in concrete" . . . and then you have to live with them for the next 30 years. Or, you have to bring in the jackhammers.

So there it is.

I'll post the drawings you sent, and email Waterbear and Waste.

When you update the drawings, include pipe sizes. If there are size transitions in Tees, photo those tees, and supply size info. Also it's not clear to me what bits are build and what bits are to-be-built. But, when you photo, take pics of all the hydraulic elements.

Ben