Spedigrees - glad to hear your dreaded nutria rat is actually a muskrat. I've seen muskrats and otters in my pond. I know there has been some beaver activity - evidenced by the downed trees - but I have yet to actually see a beaver. I *think* I actually saw a groundhog the other day. We had one living in our brush pile last summer - he destroyed my gardens. So I'm hoping he found somewhere new to live this year.

Thank you, that will save me some time if I switch over. Since everything is glued together including the threaded fittings into the pot I would have to replace two 3-way valves. Not a huge deal just more time and money. I just installed a 2-speed motor and it seems to be adequate at low speed. However, as the filter pressure increases the flow dramatically decreases. I was thinking a little more RPMs would be nice maybe around 2,000 or so. I have been using PhosFree to remove the Phosphates, which are now low so the flow problem may go away and the 2-speed motor may be fine. I can buy a lot of DE for the price of a VF and Intellicom. I am a little hesitant to install a variable speed pump. I had my variable blower motor fail on my house heater. Fortunately it was just inside the 5 year warranty but it still cost $280 in service calls. Could have been $280 plus over $750 for the motor.

Thanks for the reminder pics. Now lets see if I remember all desired behaviors: 1) Single turnover of pool volume 2) Use solar to heat pool if heat is desired turned on from inside controller 3) Use Gas Heater for spa if heat is desired turned on from inside controller 4) Blower on from inside controller 5) 2X Deck jet test/day (Why?) 6) Spa Spill 2X 30 min ea. 7) Pool Lights on from inside controller Relevant Issues: 1) Pool return in spa valved off because low flow during standard filter cycle causes spilling water to run under the spillway and onto the spa wall. In the future, this can be corrected by putting short walls on the spillway's sides and putting a couple shallow grooves under the lip. This will cause any water trying to flow under the spill to fall in the pool. Alternative is to glue a couple thin strips to underside instead of grooves to achieve the same functionality. 2) Pool sweep shares suction with skimmer and drain. Line always open except in Spa Mode and Spa Drain Mode. When pump speed is increased, sweep works. 3) Intellitouch thinks there are two different pool volumes. There should only be one AFAIK. 4) Why program the deck jets for anything other than manual control at the indoor panel? 5) Is Solar Heat is in Manual control mode at the front panel? 6) What speed is spa mode? This should be dictated by the recommendation of the jet manufacturer times the number of jets. Useful but not seen in the manual: Lockouts: If the pool is in spa mode, lock out solar, deck jets... If the pool is in Spillover or Spa Fill (same valve settings but not always the same pump speed), lock out deck jets but not solar. I can think of other uses for a programmable lockout feature that go beyond what you want/need. I am going to try to get a Pentair Guru to look at this thread. I would like to be able to give them your email adrdress to, if it's ok with you. Scott

Unfortunately, I can't give an update on the current conditions at Descanso. It just was too difficult & heartbreaking to continue to go there. The last time I visited the rose garden was June 2016 with Anita Clevenger. She bore witness to the sad destruction of what once was a prominent & unique Southern California destination rose garden. It was obvious that it could only be included in the pre-conference tour for the upcoming October, 2016 HRF Conference, 'No Rose Is Safe: Preserving Roses in a Challenging World', as an example of the worst that can happen to roses in a public garden. At the time of our visit, the greatly diminished collection of Alister Clark roses was struggling under the shade of the overgrown trees above them. Lammerts roses were also struggling amongst Knock Outs. There were only a couple of Dot roses left. The Polyantha beds were still there and they hadn't yet tackled the tangled mess the Centifolia beds had become. The torn up Gallica beds still had not been planted & the plowed up roses were sprouting up again from the remaining roots. Some of the newly planted roses had black spot and were virused. For Star Roses & Weeks to have donated virused roses is inexcusable. But that was two years ago & I have no idea what has happened to the garden since. Seeing as they got off to such a bad start with people who really know little about roses, I can't imagine it's gotten better. They truly have no concept of what they destroyed. Molly Malinick has the title of Rose Garden Horticulturalist there, was fresh out of school, very young but enthusiastic. To her credit she attended the conference. I hope she learned something.