Plumbing, advice please

[dray16]

8531985318

Good day fellas. Just after a bit of advice, Í need to change a leaking 3-way valve that diverts water to the roof for solar heating, now as you can see in the photo it's right next to two T-piece so it's not a simple cut and replace. I thought I'll change the whole plumbing but in a different way. The diagram above shows what I want to do, am I right in thinking this is better than the old set-up or should I stick to what was there? Thanks for any input.

[Godzilla73]

G'day,

Don't think your proposed set up will work, i think the valve stops the flow to the roof and flows straight back into the pool. When you turn the valve 90 degrees this then sends the water up to the roof and and back down now warm and into the pool not the filter pump set up. It's like a non return valve on a hot water service. You could move it to a better place if it's in the way but you need the same set out i think. I may be wrong, just what it looks like to me, happy to be enlightened.

[dray16]

Thanks for bothering to reply. If you look at the old set-up diagram, it will show that these connections are AFTER the pump and filter, so yes, your understanding of the water going back to the pool is correct, as it's what it''s meant to do. Do you think I should put another 3-way valve on the connection from the roof to stop water going to that pipe if I want to bypass the solar heating?

[Godzilla73]

The only thing missing in the new set up is a tee to feed the roof heating, you show the valve going up, but i think you need a separate tee for that line and yes you could put a stop valve there but the existing set up is doing that to a point by bypassing it and allowing it to just circulate the pool water. I'd be worried about accidentally having both turned off at once tho and damaging the pump and filter which i think is the reason for the current layout.

[dray16]

The 3-way valve will be the T-piece that will feed the roof heating, it's not shown in the diagram as the pipe goes down to the ground and the diagram is top view, sorry if my diagram is confusing. It should look like this:

85354
I get what you mean, having two 3 way might be a recipe for disaster hence they used the old set-up. I just thought it would have less bends and if I have to change the valve again later on, my set-up won't have the valve right against the T-piece (due to distance of the pipes to and from the roof, on the ground). If I stick to the original set-up, wouldn't I just require a two-way valve rather than 3-way? I would only need on and off(refer to the original photo).

[Godzilla73]

Yeah that's what i reckon too, not sure of the reason for the 3 way, be nice if you could find a valve with threaded ends. I guess the chances of finding one the same in 10 years time would be a challenge too tho.

[scubabob]

I used to do this sort of thing for a living and it can be a bit of a brain tease sometimes. if you have room you may be able to incorporate barrel unions which will allow you to take it apart without cutting later on if you need to. Another thing to watch out for is the size of new valves compared to older ones. The newer ones are longer and may not fit exactly in where you want them. Jandy brand valves are pretty well the best you can get, forget anything else. They have a stop on the top so you can set it up so that you cant accidently shut everything off, like it will close off two lines but not the third, e.g. the outlet from the filter so you cant blow everything up. If you use Jandy valves, chances are you wont need to take it apart again.