Suction and return fittings

As explained in the pool plumbing design post, we have a skimmer and two wall suction fittings to extract water from the pool and three return eyeballs to return water.

Installation of these fittings is a pretty straight forward process. The appropriate sized hole is cut in the shell with a hole saw and after smoothing the fibgreglass on the outside, the fitting is screwed into place with silicone on both sides. Although some of the fittings come with rubber gaskets, all advice (including from the pool shell manufacturer) points to throwing them away and relying on silicone exclusively, which is what we did.

Holes drilled out of pool shell wall for suction fittings

Return eyeball ready for installation

Deep-end wall with wall suction and return fittings in place.

Once the fittings are in place, they need to be connected to the pump and filtration system back on the equipment pad. To maximize temperature of the pool water, we decided to insulate the pipes that will be returning water to the pool. This is because we will be installing solar heating and the ground temperature around the pipes will be substantially below that of the returning water.

Insulated return water pipe on shell.

Insulated return water pipe in trench.

Underwater lights

In addition to lighting on the pool deck, stairs, and garden bed, we’re placing two 10 Watt, underwater, white LED lights on the uphill pool wall.

The lights are installed through a hole cut into the pool shell and secured with a threaded collar and silicone. The lights are powered by a 12 Volt (pool specific isolation) transformer back at the equipment pad.

Hole cut ready for the light fitting.

Rear side of the installed light fitting.

Conduit running from the light fitting back to the transformer.