Troubleshooting water flow from spa to pool after motor shutdown

[JohnK]

Hi … I have an in ground pool with spa in ground next to pool slightly elevated above pool. When operating pool filter normally water flows over spa edge and waterfalls into pool.

I noticed this morning after the normal pump shutdown the night before that the water level in the spa was significantly lower (20" lower than normal) and the pool water level was higher than normal. It appears the water simply left the spa and went to the pool. I also noticed that the pressure in the system at the filter was at 10 psi (normally operates at 5 psi) so I cleaned the filter and DE grids and reassembled then fired it up again and noticed very little water flow at skimmer or pool sweep. Does not appear to be any visible air leaks and the pump motor primes sufficiently with no air bubbles.

Any ideas of suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[waterbear]

Does your system have automatic valve actuators or manual valves to switch between pool and spa? Does it have a check valve in the spa drain line? Sounds like either a bad check valve, bad valve or actuator problem

[JohnK]

Automatic valve actuators. No check valve for spa drain that I can find. Should I sent a photo of the equipment layout?

[PoolDoc]

Photos definitely help, with equipment questions. You can post photos using Flickr, Picasa, Webshots, or you can email them to poolforum@gmail.com.

[waterbear]

Once we see the photos of your valve arrangement we can better see what the problem is but if there is no check valve I would suspect a bad valve or actuator. Try disingaging the actuators (if don't know how let us inow what brand and model of automation and actuators you have) and turining the valves manually (If you donlt know how don't do it).
Pictures of the valve positions in both pool and spa settings (or pool and spillover, however your system is set up) would be very helpful!

[JohnK]

Once we see the photos of your valve arrangement we can better see what the problem is but if there is no check valve I would suspect a bad valve or actuator. Try disingaging the actuators (if don't know how let us inow what brand and model of automation and actuators you have) and turining the valves manually (If you donlt know how don't do it).
Pictures of the valve positions in both pool and spa settings (or pool and spillover, however your system is set up) would be very helpful!

Sent the photos to pool forum. I operated all valves both manually and electronically and they seem to be operational. All valves are Jandy. The photos show valve setting with spa spillover.