Pool Valves You Should Avoid
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When you are building or redesigning a swimming pool equipment pad you will eventually arrive at the point where you need to buy valves for the system. The amount you need depends on the complexity of your installation but in most cases the number of valves you need will surprise you. 20 or 30 valves are needed for some pool and spa installations so when you first look at the prices you will automatically be drawn to the cheapest option...non-union PVC ball valves. Don't do it. The entire point of this article is to convince you not to buy these specific types of valves. I swear you will regret it if you do.
So what is the big deal? Well, first you need so many valves for pool and spa installations in order to have flow control. Flow control is an important part of a well designed hydraulic system. Ideally you want to be able to control flow or even completely isolate any given pipe within the system. For example if you have a suction side manifold on your pool filtration system which includes two individual skimmers lines plus a main drain line also. That is three suction lines total. Without any valves on the individual lines you would have no way to adjust, change or isolate flow to these three components in the pool. It would be decidedly better to have valves on each individual pipe. This allows absolute flow control which serves a host of benefits to the pool owner including the ability to balance water flow, isolate the main drain to pump the pool empty, turn off any one pipe if a leak develops in that line...and valves are the actual component which facilitates this control over your water. Now knowing why the valves are needed, and are so important, let's talk briefly about why you are not going to cheap out with non-union valves.
Non-union PVC ball valves - The reason why you need to avoid these valves is that they are simply too low quality of a product. They are hard to turn the handle even when brand new, and more often than not fail to seal the flow completely as a result. Commonly, over time the handle will weaken from the excess force they require you to use, and ultimately the handle will fail leaving a very sharp broken plastic edge. The allure of these valves is that you need a lot of valves even for basic pool installations so the difference between an $8.00 non-union valve and a $20 single union valve is actually quite a lot of money. Rest assured that money you spend on better valves now will benefit you directly every time you need to interact with your pool. If you are not sure which valves to avoid here is a link to Amazon for a vendor selling non-union PVC ball valves
Single union ball valves - The picture at the top of this page shows a single union PVC ball valve with a red arrow pointing at the union. These single union ball valves, manufactured by Spears or Praher, are what I consider to be the lowest priced and lowest quality valves that I will endorse for pool system installations. In fact, I quite like these single union ball valves and these to me represent a decent value as they generally are much less expensive than dual union ball valves (true union) or diverter valves. Despite being less expensive than these other options, the single union PVC ball valves from Praher and Spears have proven to me over many years to be reliable, work as advertised, experience few in the way of early failures etc. Note that off-brand single union ball valves I am less enthusiastic about. They might be good. Or they might not. For my experience the Praher and Spears brand are the way to go if you want to use a lower cost single union ball valve. You take your chances with other less known brands. (Note - Hayward, Pentair and Jandy all make valves as well and any of these I would also consider to be suitably high quality for pool installations)
Dual union ball valves - I do not think there is a need for two unions on a valve for swimming pool installations. However, the quality of dual union valves is almost universally higher than any single union ball valve options. Of course the price usually reflects this as well with dual union PVC ball valves usually being fairly expensive versus the single union valve options. With product and equipment supply issues over the past few years many pool installations are left looking for alternative equipment and supplies, like valves, and are left wondering if a dual union valve is okay to use. They definitely are. Again I heavily lean towards a few names like Spears and Praher, with the pool manufacturers Hayward, Pentair and Jandy also being excellent options. Lasco is a pipe and fitting manufacturer which also has high quality valve options that I would be comfortable to endorse. There are others as well. These are just some of the brands which are available locally to me that I have specific experience with and can endorse the quality component of the valve.
Diverter valves - The gold standard for valves in the swimming pool industry are not ball valves at all. Diverter valves are generally considered to be the highest quality valve option and the best for swimming pool systems. In addition to being serviceable with replaceable parts, they are compatible with automation systems and motorized valve actuators which allow you to automate certain valve settings in your pool, like with shared pool and spa systems for example. Or a water feature you want to be able to turn on and off remotely without walking over to the pool equipment and turning valves manually. Jandy is definitely the gold standard when it comes to diverter valves for swimming pool installations and if I had every option available to me this is what I am going to choose first, without question. If there is any disadvantage with diverter valves instead of ball valves it is simply that they tend to cost more than ball valves, and also they commonly do not have a union. Not every valve needs a union for a swimming pool installation, but quite often a union would be either needed or beneficial. So if you need unions you will have to add them separately or choose less common diverter valves which come with unions. These would be pretty expensive versus other options presented on this page. You can also see an example of these diverter valves here: Jandy diverter valves.
There are more valves as well such as knife valves as commonly seen on above ground pool installations as well as prefabricated hot tubs. There are also higher quality brass ball valves however these have quite a negative impact on flow potential versus PVC diverter valves or even ball valves. They also cost quite a lot. In summary, almost all pools should end up with either high quality brand name diverter valves (both 2 way and 3 way valves) or at minimum, single union PVC ball valves. Perhaps a mixture of the two even. You can see examples of diverter valves, diverter valves with unions, as well as single union PVC ball valves (Praher brand) in my Swimming Pool Steve test lab videos. Here is an example, and the valves can be seen starting around the 2:00 minute mark as I walk you through the system parameters for this test: pool pump costs savings test. If you would like to see more examples of each valve type along with links to each kind you can find these in my PVC valves and unions page.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool and spa specialist from Ontario Canada. With over 10,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the 2018 Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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