A swimming pool is an excellent addition to any San Jose, CA home. It provides the perfect setting for daily exercise, weekend parties, and all-inclusive family summer fun. But as you probably already know, keeping the pool in good working condition requires a lot of effort.
Your pool will need regular cleaning and maintenance of its pipes to ensure that the water keeps circulating and that it’s safe for swimming. Left unchecked, pool pipes can develop plumbing issues, which can make swimming uncomfortable and even hazardous.
Knowing how to care for a home swimming pool can reduce the frequency of its plumbing breakdown. The one key thing to remember always is that water flow can affect the performance of your pool in multiple ways.
What Causes Pool Plumbing Problems?
There’s no better feeling than jumping into your backyard pool on a hot day in San Jose. Unfortunately, and as many homeowners have come to learn, pools come with a whole set of issues. Some of these are easy DIY fixes, such as correcting chemical imbalances using readily available pool plumbing equipment.
At other times, you may need to call in an expert who understands how pools work and who has the right equipment to address the issue(s) at hand. No matter whether you’ve got an in-ground or above-ground pool, there’re several issues that may arise down the road.
Most of these will target the pool plumbing and will include:
- Pool pump problems
- Filter pressure changes
- Build-up of dirt and debris
- Pool plumbing leaks
Now that you’ve an idea of the pool plumbing problems that you’re likely to face, let’s look at how to get them fixed.
1. Learning How to Spot Potential Water-Flow Issues in the Pool
Before we proceed any further, please note that we at Plumbtree Plumbing & Rooter don’t advocate for DIY projects and always recommend that you call a professional pool plumber.
Having said that, we understand that you’re best suited to identify potential issues with your pool, given that you spend much of your free time in it. This means you need to know what to look for to know when to call in a pool contractor.
To get you started, you should note that when the water flow gets affected, or the pool becomes clogged, several factors will be affected. Often, the most signs that your swimming pool is experiencing low water flow in its plumbing will include strange-looking water and weird noises. The presence of air bubbles on the pool surface also means that something is wrong.
If you’ve installed a gas-fired pool heater in your San Jose home, it may start to produce a loud banging noise if the pool’s water flow has become restricted. In other cases, the water may also become murky. Our experience has taught us that signs that something is wrong with your pool plumbing can manifest in various ways.
Depending on the extent of the plumbing issue, air bubbles may begin flowing from your pool jets or appear in the filter. A cursory check of the gauges installed in the pool filters may show that the water pressure in the swimming pool is either too high or too low. When the pressure is low, certain pool features will become impacted. They include the following:
- Pool pipes
- Jet pressure
- Pool pump
- Pump strainer
- Pool heater
- Water clarity
If you’ve recently noticed an issue with any of the above-mentioned pool features, there’s a high probability that your swimming pool has a water-flow problem. These issues are serious and shouldn’t be ignored, as they can contribute to failing pumps, heaters, and other issues.
2. Confirming the Source of the Water-Flow Issue
The presence of clogs in pool piping can contribute to a host of water-flow problems. A great way to establish whether there’s clogging in the plumbing is to check the baskets on all the pool filters. Clogging can happen when there’s a build-up of debris and leaves. If possible, try to clean the skimmer filters while inspecting the components to see if they fit in their holders.
Holes and cracks in the filters are another source of concern. Whenever surface skimmers get cracked, twigs and leaves are bound to find their way into the pool. What happens next is that they’ll clog the piping and the pump impellers, which will contribute to plumbing problems. If the water-flow issues persist even after cleaning the filters, this is a sign of an underlying concern.
Besides cracks and holes in the pool filters, water-level issues have also been known to cause plumbing problems. Our pool plumbers recommend ensuring that the pool’s water levels sufficiently cover the inlet ports. Failure to do so will expose the skimmers, causing them to pull air into the pool plumbing.
Lastly, go over the settings to confirm that the no-flow-restricting switch hasn’t been activated by mistake. If you can, you should also check the plumbing valve to establish whether the bypass mode is engaged. These are some of the settings that can cause your San Jose swimming pool to develop water-flow issues.
3. Knowing When to Call the Pool Plumbing Experts
If there’s even the slightest indication that your San Jose pool has become clogged, don’t hesitate to reach out to the pool experts at Plumbtree Plumbing & Rooter. A pool pipe-cleaning expert can assist in clearing away the built-up debris. At this point, we wouldn’t advise taking on a DIY project, as an ill-informed pressure-cleaning job can easily disconnect or damage the pipes. Our pool cleaners come equipped with specialty cleaning tools that can remove any blockage.
While at it, desist from using sewer snakes to push out the debris clogging the plumbing system. When handled poorly, sewer snakes can easily introduce harmful and hazardous bacteria into your pool water. Considering that your kids are likely to spend the bulk of their summer holiday playing in the pool, this is the last thing you’d want to do. In addition to introducing bacteria to the pool water, a sewer snake can also dislodge the 90° elbows used in plumbing connections.
The best course of action when faced with water-flow issues is to call in a pool expert and let them handle the maintenance tasks. Our qualified experts will check its components, such as water-pressure switches, gas lines, temperature-pressure switches, and refrigerant levels, to determine the source of the problem. All this is done to confirm that your pool components are working correctly and that there’re no performance issues.
Why Hire Plumbtree Plumbing & Rooter for Your Pool Plumbing Needs?
There’re too many things that can go wrong with your pool plumbing, hence the need to ensure that only a professional gets to handle its maintenance. At Plumbtree Plumbing & Rooter, we provide professional pool plumbing, drain cleaning, and leak detection services to all San Jose homeowners. You can trust us to diagnose and fix any plumbing issue in your home.
Besides pool plumbing, we also provide several other services, such as water services, gas services, rooter plumbing, and sewer services. Our experts use state-of-the-art equipment to determine the source of a problem before attending to it. To learn more about swimming pool plumbing in San Jose, contact Plumbtree Plumbing & Rooter today.
