Is your Water Draining from your Pump or Spa When Pool Shuts Off? Solved: Change the Check Valve

The function of the Check Valve is to stop water from doing what it naturally does when the pool turns off, which is to flow in the direction of least resistance which is back down the pipe into the pool. If you have a Check Valve in front of your pool pump and it has failed you will notice the pump will start to slowly drain after the pool turns off. If the Check Valve is in the spa bypass line and fails you will see the spa drain down to the pool water level when the pool pump turns off.

This is a very common problem in both the pool equipment and the spa bypass lines of a pool. The Check Valve is long lasting but over time chemicals begin to wear down the rubber flap or wear out the spring that engages and shuts the flap.

Let me go back a bit and describe how the check valve works. Basically it is a plastic flap with a rubber seal around it that when closed will completely seal off the PVC pipe in your pool equipment. There is a spring on top that moves the flap back when water flows through the pool pump and when the pump turns off the flap will swing closed creating a tight seal.

Water naturally will want to flow back to it's source so if you don't have a Check Valve somewhere on the equipment plumbing, over time it will drain back to the pool. Usually there is a Check Valve above the pump or in front of the pump or near the heater. So when it begins to fail you will notice the water in the filter draining down and the water in the pump will slowly disappear back into the pool.

This makes priming the pump difficult when you remove the pump lid and clean the pump basket and also if your equipment is far from the pool skimmer it may even have trouble priming each day just when it turns on. If you don't have a Check Valve in front of your pump and you notice hard priming issues, it would be a great idea to install one in front of the pump if you can. In the case of the pool in the video the equipment is very far from the skimmer and with a failed Check Valve was struggling badly to even prime each day.

If you notice your spa is draining down after you turn off the pool it is usually a bad check valve. In that case watch this video to see different types of Spa Check Valves:

My Spa is Draining Down When Pool Turns Off:

With these full size Jandy and Pentair Check Valves you don't need to do any re-plumbing. Simply remove the old Check Valve top and drop in a new one. It is easy as can be and anyone can do this as long as you note which way the flap is facing on the old one. Or note which way the water is flowing and make sure the back end of the flap is facing towards the water flow. If you put the Check Valve on the wrong way it will restrict the flow of water to the pump or filter and could create a dangerous situation. You will know right away if you have the flap reversed as no water will flow past the Check Valve.

You can use a drill to remove the screws when you are taking the old Check Valve off but I strongly advise using a hand screwdriver when putting it on as not to crack the black plastic bottom half or you will then need to do some re-plumbing. You want to make sure which brand of Check Valve you are replacing as they are brand specific. Another Words a Jandy Check Valve will not slide into the same body as a Pentair Check Valve.

You can also at this time install an H2O Flow Meter at the Check Valve if you want, They sell a Retrofit kit for the Jandy Check Valve which you can see in this video:

FlowVis® Flow Meter Retrofit Kit Installation Guide: http://youtu.be/hsH2I06G_-A

Bottom line, this is a very easy thing to fix if you notice water draining down out of your spa or pool pump after the pump turn off.

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