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An age old question from swimming pool owners is about how to aim the returns for optimal circulation of your pool water. There are a lot of mixed opinions available if you go looking for answers but the first thing to remember is that every single pool is built differently. The location of returns, the number that you have, the height relative to the surface of the water, the amount of flow in your system, whether your returns are hydraulically balanced or not...there is more to consider than you might think on the surface.
All variables that make one pool different from another aside something that all returns should aim to accomplish is to vortex the pool. This is a very subtle effect that you would probably not even notice while observing the pool. It might appear that the water is hardly moving at all but in fact it is (should be) circulating in a vortex. Essentially like a flushing toilet just with far less vortexing action. The ideal behind this circulation pattern is to get the optimal function from your pool skimmers which are designed to draw in surface debris which is floating by. This vortexing action would also be inclined to accumulate physical debris on the floor of the pool into the center of the floor where (presumably) it will be drawn in by the main drains and sent through the filtration system. Pools without an active main drain would just accumulate debris in the center of the floor where it can be easily spot vacuumed.
Turbulence causes pH rise - The first thing to know about aiming your pool jets is that you do not want to aim them such that they are causing aeration at the surface of the water. Turbulence like this adds oxygen to the water and will significantly increase your pH over time. For this reason if you ever need to raise your pH without raising the alkalinity as well then you would run a waterfall or aim your return eyelets at the surface of the water such that they create turbulence. However with many pools, and most especially salt chlorine pools, high pH is already a chronic problem and certainly something that you would not want to add to by creating turbulence by aiming your return jets too high.
Aiming return jets too low - You often will hear advice to aim your return jets down to help with better circulation of your water. If your pool is well designed then this should not be a problem you are dealing with. Main drains should draw water from the deep end and return near the surface through the returns jets. There should be no issues with thermoclines in your pool but if there is I do not believe that aiming your returns down is the answer. Of course every pool is different however I would not want to sacrifice my water vortex in pursuit of better circulation along the floor of my pool. Regular brushing, vacuuming, swimming and regular filtration should be enough that this is never an issue in your pool.
Where to aim return jets?
The optimal positioning for return eyelets is to aim them all in the same direction to encourage a vortex of the pool surface, and the height of the returns should be such that you can see movement in the surface of the water, but only barely so. This optimal placement will encourage the best function from your skimmer to collect floating debris, and will allow effective diffusion of filtered water as it returns to your pool. You should be filtering the volume of your pool three times over every 24 hours and so you will assuredly have dynamic diffusion to all points in your pool after moving that much water. If you can see ripples that indicate the movement of water, but no actual bubbles or turbulence being induced this would be the perfect positioning for your returns.
There are a lot of ways that you can build a pool. Where some builders might use one or two return ports with their standard design I prefer to utilize a four return minimum design. This allows for optimal circulation and vortexing of the water and maximum functioning of your skimmers. Is this a perfect design? No I would not say it is, but I would say that it is the minimum amount of circulation designed into the pool that I prefer to see. This is not to say a pool with one or two returns will not run, but I would say that it certainly is not optimal and leaves some room for improvement. Specifically piping is relatively cheap compared to the prices and bills associated with building a pool. Having a little more robust of a circulation and filtration system is money well spent in my book. I also heavily endorse investing in isolated plumbing runs for each and every fixture in your pool. While pool plumbing is often branched together underground I prefer to have more individual control of the plumbing with isolated lines.
Imagine one day in the future you discover your pool losing water. Let's assume the source of the leak is a broken return port or pipe. If you have pipes connected together underground then you will need to turn off your pump and wait for a leak detection and repair company to come out and diagnose and repair the leak. In the meantime you can't swim and your pool turns an awful green color. Now if you had isolated return pipes then you could plug your returns one by one and isolate each with the valves in the pump room. When you find the leaking line simply leave that one line plugged and valve closed while you continue to swim and enjoy your pool and wait for the leak detection team to come out. That is a benefit that you might get one day but a real benefit you get for sure from isolated plumbing runs is that you can control the exact amount of flow going to each and every return port. Perhaps you don't want 25% of your pump volume going to each of your four returns...maybe you want the ones blowing down the long walls to have more power than the two that blow down the short walls. With isolated plumbing runs you can dial in your system to perfection.
Unless you are just building your pool now then you are probably stuck with whatever plumbing system and return location that you have now for better or for worse. Just remember that you really want all of your returns working together to encourage the water to vortex. You want to avoid aerating the water by aiming the returns too high, and avoid aiming them so low as to compromising the circulation pattern. Slightly aimed up and all more or less aiming the same direction is as good as you can do with existing pools.
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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 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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