Crystal Pure Salt System Plumbing

Here is a recent conversation we had with a customer about installing the salt cell on there Crytal Pure Salt System that I thought would be helpful for the forum.

Customer Question:

I need to reconfigure my Plumbing as I don’t have a convenient place to install the cell, any advice you could give would be much appreciated.

Thanks Chris! If you need any help with the plumbing configuration then please feel free to send me some photos of your current plumbing and pool equipment and I would be happy to help.

Reply From Customer

Patrick, Thanks I have an idea, but what would you do? There isn’t enough room leaving the heater - before ( or after) the Jandy. I have a port in the pool for an automatic vacuum that was disconnected, and I plan on re-instating it. I think the cap on the Pool line downstream of the heater-jandy valve is from that. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,

Pool Salt System Plumbing

Pool Salt System Plumbing

I have a similar set up at my house I will take a few photos and send to you on how mine was plumbed, I think those should be helpful.

I attached a photo of your plumbing asking if the arrow I’m pointing to is your pool return line, could you please review and let me know. Ideally the salt cell would be the last piece of equipment on the return side of your system, you would definitely want the salt cell after your heater. I have also attached a photo of how my cell is installed for reference.

Reply from Customer

Yes- that is the return line. That is the likely location to place the cell , except I didn’t think there is enough room for the cell and flow meter.

Do you ever use that ball valve on that return line? If not then you could cut that out. Could you measure the distance between the two 90’s on the return line and let me know what that measures? I will then measure the cell and flow switch to let you know how much room you need.

Reply from Customer

22’’ 90-90

I thought I needed the ball valve to prevent backflow.At one point there was a sidewall vacuum line for an auto cleaner installed and that’s what I think that teed off section that is capped is for. It makes sense to use that section but then I wouldn’t be able to reinstate the auto cleaner. Perhaps I’ll get a robotic electrical cleaner. The other thing I could do, I thought was create a loop after the heater and before the Jandy for the salt cell, and put the flow switch past the Jandy in the return line. I’ve got a pool guy coming tomorrow to discuss it with me maybe I’ll pass the torch.Thanks for your input

22" is going to be really tight, I took a picture of my set up and it is exactly 22" see attached photo.

There are three types of pool cleaners suction cleaners, pressure cleaners and robotic. The suction cleaner has a line plumbed into the suction side of the pump and the cleaner sucks up debris. For the location, you show with the T that would be a pressure side cleaner which uses the return water from your pump to propel the cleaner around the pool almost like a pressure washer. Normally if you were pre-plumbed for a pressure cleaner you would just see a pipe stubbed up out of the ground that was capped off and this line would be going back to the pool. I have tried many different cleaners on my pool and by far my favorite is the robotic style cleaner, and within the robotic cleaners I have tried 5 different ones (one of the perks of working in the pool industry =)) and my favorite is the Dolphin Triton

I do like the idea of doing a loop in the plumbing but it may be a good idea to have your pool guy double check. Another option is a vertical installation something like this Vertical Installation Finally I don’t believe that valve is needed for any backflow prevention, normally you would use a check valve for backflow prevention and a ball valve is just used to control the flow of water to the pool, but normally on the pool returns you don’t need to throttle the flow of water. This may be another thing to have the pool guy review. Best of luck and let me know if I can help in any way.

Reply from Customer

Great info thx- I wasn’t aware that the salt cell could be installed vertically.

I’ll let you know how I make out.

Reply from Customer

I met with my Pool guy-The plan is to change the ball valve on the return to a smaller type. Eliminate the pressure cleaner stub-out and  Install the salt cell on that run. We will install the flow switch between the filter and the heater.

Thanks and that sounds like a great plan! I would love to see photo’s once it is complete.