Is there a pool pump fitting adapter to stop this incessant leak?

[trader4]

They work well for me on PVC up to 1 1/2". Always cuts close to square. Certainly a lot squarer than you can do with a saw.

[Danny D]

Well, I'll find out 'cuz I bought a new 2" pipe cutter yesterday!

I realized the new pipe cutter had a latch at the bottom; so, I think the old one was "returned" at one point, by someone else.

Even so, I couldn't find any of the new ones that didn't have that black non-powdery dye-like stuff at the bottom of the white bag though ... (see photo for example):

[Danny D]

Well, I'll find out 'cuz I bought a new 2" pipe cutter yesterday!

I realized the new pipe cutter had a latch at the bottom; so, I think the old one was "returned" at one point, by someone else.

Even so, I couldn't find any of the new ones that didn't have that black non-powdery dye-like stuff at the bottom of the white bag though ... (see photo for example):

[Danny D]

You can see the cut ends from these off the pump outlets:

One dilemma was that the gray threaded circled schedule 80 nipple "adapter" didn't seem to exist at two Home Depots that I had visited yesterday.

They said it must be some kind of specialty pool fitting.

[Danny D]

You're very observant! You should be a criminal prosecutor!

I had never mentioned that thin steel tubing, and, in fact, since it was rusted on the end where it was bolted to the concrete originally, I lifted it up and moved it off to the side, and had not bothered to mention it.

It's a cheap support for the control panel backboard. The problem is that the bottom had rusted through, so I'll be replacing it, once I'm all done.

Kudos to you for noticing it was out of place though.

[Danny D]

Here's that conduit in situ, which, of course, I need to replace with something better than it was (because it rusted through):

[Danny D]

The 2" conduits don't come out from the block wall. The come up from the ground, all in a single tight line. Probably done with some fancy professional pipe-fitting software! :)

Here's an ugly shot of 'most' of the pipes (it missed the solar pipes):

From left to right:

1. Spa jets in
2. Spa jets out
3. Filter in (spa)
4. Filter in (pool)
5. Cleaner in (pool skimmer 1)
6. Cleaner out (pool floor jets)
7. Cleaner in (pool skimmer 2)
8. Filter out 1 (spa)
9. Filter out 2 (pool)
10. Filter out 3 (permanent popup cleaner sprays near the deep end)
11. Unused vacuum cleaner pipe (no pump attached but goes to middle of pool)
12. Solar in
13. Solar out

Since these are all basic tasks, I would think most (self-cleaning) pools would have similar plumbing - but I must admit - this is the only pool I know; but most people who looked at it told me the wrong thing (e.g., about how the skimmers worked, which, it turns out, are wholly unfiltered!).

[Danny D]

Turns out that is a super duper deluxe thingey!

I'm told it's supposed to kill bacteria, if you bother with the $100 super duper fancy special cartridge:

The problem is that it apparently really isn't needed but it clutters up the outflow from the pool filter:

In fact, it even has an ORANGE restrictor, hindering flow:

So, I just recently dug out that restrictor, and, I'm seriously contemplating removing the whole thingey, whatever it does:

[Danny D]

I'm still confused, because I don't know of any electrical flex conduit going nowhere...

Do you mean this electrical panel and the pool controller box?

[Danny D]

Yeah, they had a LOT of pipes inside of pipes!

And, they seemed to use a LOT of that thick gray stuff.

For example, look here and you see what appears to be a schedule 200 nipple epoxied onto the end of the pipe, instead of a standard schedule 40 coupling:

I'm going to have to re-use that because Home Depot didn't have any equivalent end fittings.

[Danny D]

I'm already suffering from scope creep, doing everything "but" the plumbing, which I'm having problems tackling because I'm afraid I'll screw it up - so I'm trying to plan out every step.

But, it's driving me crazy ... I'd better just do it and get it over with as all this worrying about the plumbing is making me work on other stuff instead. (Do you ever do that?)

Anyway, here's my final plan, before actually doing it:

RATIONALE:

- I couldnt' get a straight shot to both pumps without going OVER the baskets, which drove me crazy in the original setup - so I refuse to do that (it makes opening the baskets problematic).

- I did get a straight shot for the filter pump; but it's very close to the filter so the motor may get dripped on if the filter weaps.

- I have a couple of elbows in the cleaner pump, and neither the inlet or outlet is a straight shot, unfortunately.

- There are couplings all over the place; so I can take stuff apart.

- I'm replacing all the fittings that I could find replacements for at Home Depot - but some I just couldn't find - so I'm re-using them.

- For now, I'm going to leave the mineral exchange thingey in place, as I just don't want to rip up too much (that's always my problem --- scope creep!).

[trader4]

The only issue I see is that on the one pump you appear to be adding one union to the one that is already there. And you're doing that by taking half of a new union and mating it with half of one of the old unions. IMO, that *might* work or it might leak all over the place. I'm not sure that all unions are designed exactly the same so that they can mate with half of any other union. Also, the seal in the old one is how old now? I would get rid of the existing one and replace it, winding up with just one. I guess if you try it your way and it leaks, you could go back and do it the other way later.

Also, I'd move the union on the pump on the left over to the pipe section closer to the pump so the pump comes out with less piping on it.

[Danny D]

Again, I'm impressed with your visual acumen.

That's exactly what I was doing. I didn't want to cut off the old union (which is 1 year old) but I also didn't like it where it is (I wanted it closer to the pump).

Also, I just realized I probably want the unions on a straight shot into the pump, so that I might more easily tighten them if they leak again, as they did in the past.

So I will see if I can accommodate all your good suggestions.

[Danny D]

Yes. I will sandpaper the black to white.

Hmmm... I have the purple primer. Is that what you mean? (I don't know of any other PVC cleaner ... )

[Danny D]

Long story. For others reading this, see this thread:

• Question just about the order of pipe dope sealant and teflon tape

Done!

This is my first plumbing-rework job, which had simultaneous criteria.

Results:

1. I was able to save all the Jandy valves (which also saved draining the pool!).
2. I eliminated three 90° elbows & added back one 90° & one 45° elbow for a net halving of the number of elbows.
3. I also eliminated a pipe running inconveniently directly over the pump basket cover (which had made it hard to remove the cover).
4. And the unions enable the pumps to be removed easily, and even swapped in an emergency (by carefully matching the inlet pipes and unions by length & location).
5. Of course, I hope that I eliminated the leak at the two pump inlets (but, now if they leak, they'll be easier to repair!).
6. And, the electrical junction box I'm going to add will make removal of the motors vastly easier (especially with the straight-through waterproof conduit ends).

The trick to saving the Jandy valves (and not draining the entire pool), was to cut off the pipe *at* the Jandy valves:

And then to put an oversized 2.5-inch fitting over the outside of those already used Jandy valves:

Inside that oversized fitting, I put a 2-inch reducer bushing:

And, attached to that reducer bushing, I added a 2-inch union:

In addition, every schedule 40 and schedule 80 fitting was tightened only hand tight plus two turns to decrease strain on the female fittings.

Note: It turns out that schedule 80 fittings don't increase strength but I had to leave some of those sch 80 nipples in place due to their custom nature.

Also, since Teflon tape is deprecated in schedule 40 PVC plumbing, I removed all instances of Teflon tape, using only non-hardening PVC sealants.

One problem I ran into was that the filter itself seems to have proprietary Sta-Rite fittings on it, which weren't available at Home Depot, so, I had to re-use the filter fittings, cutting off as much of the old pipe as I dared:

In the end, I hope not only is the leak repaired, and the plumbing has fewer restrictions, but also that it will be *much easier* to maintain the plumbing what with the unions and extra space afforded by the re-piping.

[Danny D]

That pipe cutter turned out to be next to useless, btw...

Lesson learned ...

[Danny D.]

UPDATE:

The wiring was revised today, after taking in most of the input from the a.h.r team.

All the wire ends were cleaned up, with new spade connectors, and waterproof wire nuts with di-electric grease on all connections:

The motor sides were cleaned up also, with all new spade connectors:

Smoke test will be tomorrow as it was well after dark when I finished.

[trader4]

Looks good! Good luck with the test.

[trader4]

There is one more thing. To be code compliant, there should be some clamps holding the conduit. One on the short one, a couple on the long one. But if it were mine, not sure I'd bother with it.

[Danny D]

Oh. I hadn't realized that. Thanks.