ncrealestateguy,
The surface material on the edge of your infinity edge will determine how much water is needed to make a sheet or a dribble.
Crisp edges built with tile will give you a better flow than a 1/4 round tile.
A 12' tile edge might require a minimum of 10GPM/FT while a stone top and edge might require 25+GPM/FT.
If you have 2" return lines and 2" suction you are fighting an uphill battle to get enough GPM's/FT.
Many infinity edge pools are not designed to sheet water, but only keep the edge wet. What was designed and built may be two different things in your case.

to echo golfgeek, it sounds as if your expectations were not taken into much thought. Most negative edges are designed to just maintain the glass like effect up top, and not sheet down below. It would take alo of water to sheet over 12feet, especially if you wanted it to stay a solid sheet with the fall I think you have down to your basin if I remember correctly.
Regarding your 2 2" returns. Do they share one 2" pipe from the equipment all the way to the pool? Do the two returns at the pool have fittings in them or are they open 2" pipes cut off?

Natural One and golfgeek,
Thanks for the responses. Every infinity edge I have seen in person produced a waterfall.
The 2 two inch returns are separated right after the pump and I can controll the two returns via a Jandy valve. The suction side is a 3 inch pipe from the pump for about 15 feet, but then they reduced it down to a two inch pipe for the rest of the run to the pool... about another 20 feet.
The two fittings (nozzels) in the pool have been taken off, hoping to reduce the constriction.
How loud should a WhisperFlow be. Mine is very loud, and hot to the touch. Is this normal?
I would like to hear from others too, that have infinity edges and what theirs look like.

We decided against an infinity edge (I am in N.C. too) because I had two different pool builders tell me what the other posters are saying - that there would not be a sheeting or waterfall effect.

Once they both told me that, I realized that I've seen a lot of infinity edge pools, and don't remember there being more than a trickle of flow over the edge and down the face of whatever material is below the edge on any of them.

Hmmm... my infinity edge definitely has a sheeting effect over the edge. It is tiled at an angle away from the pool into the basin. The water falls about 3 feet into the basin and is so loud that you can't hear anyone talking to you if you are near it. I will try to take a picture to post later....IF and only if NCREguy finally posts his completed pool pics! Actually I have a picture but can't post it right now (computer issue)...could email it to you NCREguy if you'd like to see it.
Judy

nc-

Hello. Sorry to hear about your negative edge sheeting issue. Is your negative edge sloped towards the water or away from the water allowing the water to fall down the slope and gather velocity before free falling into the pit?

If it is sloped away from the water, you should definitely be getting a sheet. Our 16' negative edge is sloped away from the water and the water falls down a 12" tile surface at a 30 degree angle and it sheets just fine into the pit. This is with a 2HP 2 speed pump providing about 160 gpm at high speed. From Pentair's website, it looks like their 3HP should be providing about 160 gpm also.

If your negative edge is sloped towards the water requiring the water to be pushed into the slope before falling over, then you will need a much larger pump to produce a sheet due to fluid flow physics. In these applications, the flow requirment is usually doubled and sometimes tripled, which would require a commercial size pump.

If you think your 3HP is lound, the commercial ones are even louder. Yes, the 3HP pumps are loud compared to the 2HP pumps. I have one of each and the 2HP is very quiet and the 3HP is loud.

Hope this helps!

I was just teasing about your pictures. Your trip sounds fabulous. Here is the pic of my infinity edge...not as good as I thought, but gives you an idea.
Judy

Here are some pics of the infinity edge that show what i am speaking of in the last post.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

ncrealestateguy-

Ah....a picture is worth a thousand words. I see what you mean now by a rounded trailing edge. This type of configuration will require a lot more flow also to sheet just simply to overcome the surface tension of the water. Right now it wants to stick to the tile surface with no clean break.

Our negative edge is like jmck's in that the last course of tiles is set so that the edge of the tile protrudes beyond the wall surface allowing the water to break away and free fall.

If you desire a sheeting effect, maybe the grout can be chipped away and another course of 1" tile placed with about 1/2" of the tile protruding beyond the wall surface....just one thought.

I don't think a sharper edge will help and you will likely need the overhang to break the surface tension.

Sorry for the not so good news!

Another thought - there are metal edges to finish off a tile edge. I have used them when setting tile for my bathroom.

http://www.schluter.com/139.aspx

Even Home Depot sells some of that selection now.

Pretty high quality stuff.

Seems to me like the thing contributing most to your problem is the angle of the edge. Mine is a much sharper angle so there is an immediate drop off aiding water velocity over the edge. Not sure that anything can be done about that at this point. One of those issues you can't really anticipate if you haven't had this feature before. We have a few of those with our pool too and we've made our peace with them...except for the darn waterfall that is a huge disappointment to me. Less so over time I will say.
Judy

The tile guys are out there right now working. They are going to take up the last row of tile and have the new row of tile come to a 90 degree angle to the back of the wall. We will see if it solves it first thing in the morning.
Thanks for all of the responses.

Seems like A/S loves to put grout whenever tile meets tile at 90 degrees.... I have 2 friends who have A/S built pools and this is the area they both had big problems with. Not on infinity edges, but on spa spillovers and spa edges. Loose tiles, cracking grout, tiles falling off because water gets in back of them. I hope you have better luck then they have had.
Their pools are both 5 years old.

For a good sheeting effect, you either need water velocity and a good sharp edge. Our bluestone spillway has a small area that has a more rounded edge than a sharp one, and it does break up the water a bit there.

OK... The tile guys are done. They left an overhang of about a quarter of an inch, like trhought and jmcknc advised. Thanks guys for the suggestion. It was in the nick of time. We will see how it works first thing in the morning.
As far as A&S goes... Every single problem that has come up on our build, or every little thing that I changed or just did not like, they stepped up to the plate. They upgraded my easytouch 8 to an intellitouch (no charge), they upgraded my 2hp infinity edge pump to a 3 hp, they upgraded my 1.5 hp blower to a 2hp whisper ( no charge)because I did not think the bubbles were quite right, they gave (no charge) me enough coping to let my subs build all of the patio steps, and so on.
As far as the tile guys go, the ones that did my pool 45'ed the tiles where the water tiles meet the ones that go into the skimmer, and the same for the ones that meet at the raised bond beam and the steps. Every area has their own subs who do things their way. As far as my infinity edge goes, I do not know why they just rounded it off. But like I said, A&S had them out here w/in 2 days to get it right. That is what matters to me right now.

Well you certainly can't complain about that kind of service, it's a shame that all their offices aren't that responsive. Looking at your pictures it appears you've got good water flow over the wall so the tile fix should indeed give you the sheeting effect you're hoping for. Good luck!

Bingo... it sheets like a charm now! Thanks for the timely advice guys.
I will post completed pictures of my pool after today, on my original thread. (the patio guys will be done then).

Awesome!

Great! Can't wait to see your pictures.
Judy