My spa does not have a blower and does not have coping valves either. There are actually three ways to plumb a vent pipe for a spa and it depends on how far the equipment pad is from the pool and what you are looking for. 1) Use coping vent valves to have air adjustment at the spa. Note that changing the amount of air does not change the strength of the jet only the way feels (pulsating vs steady). The same amount of water flows out of the jet regardless of the air. 2) Use a single vent pipe from the spa to the equipment pad. Sometimes a blower is required due to the distance. There really isn't air control with this because if the distance is long, then without the blower, there are usually no bubbles at all. 3) Have a vent pipe close to the spa usually outside of the deck. This does not require a blower and there is not air control. Next, two pumps does not mean he is planning to use both for the spa jets unless he has specifically told you so. Typically in a dual pump installation, one pump is used for pool/spa circulation/filtering/heating and the other pump is for the jets only so you need to make sure on what he is planning. Next, having two pumps does not mean you can't heat the spa. They normally plumb in a separate line for circulation/heating which is why I brought up the point above. Normally, I would put the Intelliflo as a circulation only pump that can be switched between the spa and pool. The other pump would be dedicated to the spa jets only. This save the most in energy costs when it comes to filtering the pool. There is no point in having the Intelliflo if it is dedicated to the spa. However, you could also plumb the Intelliflo so it runs some of the jets too. But generally, it is not a good idea to have high flow rates through your filter and/or heater. So if you really want that many jets, then I would go with three pumps. Use the Intelliflo for just circulation/heating/filtering and nothing else. Then get two high HP pumps to run the jets on separate loops without any other equipment so the jets can be powerful and efficient too.

Scott- Good questions and you are obviously doing a lot of homework here as I did when I was building my pool. The handcrafted scuppers can produce a nice water sheet for a large range of flows and will be more forgiving than sheer descents if water flow is low. Reason being, the scupperÂs weir angle and length can be adjusted to give the desired sheet. Lower angles or even negative angles (water pushing into the weir instead of falling off the weir) will require more flow to produce a nice sheet. Higher angles (water falling down a steeper and longer slope) will require less flow to produce a nice sheet. The pump size should be determined by the water features that are selected. If you go with sheer descents and deck jets, the manufacturer will have a gpm rating. For a safety factor, assume worst-case flows for all water features added together then add 10% to that total. If you go with handcrafted scuppers go with a smaller pump and have them come back when you fire up the pump to tune the scuppers to your liking. If you require more than 80-100 gpm for the water features, I would recommend a single speed pump that is sized appropriately for your water flow needs. Variable speed pumps are not that efficient over 80-100 gpm and if you plan to use the water features more than a couple hours a day, the energy savings will not justify the added cost of the variable speed pump. However, if adjusting the power and sound of your water features is important to you, then a variable speed or 2 speed pump will give more flexibility depending on the mood you are trying to create. The variable speed pump, obviously, will allow more adjustments (more moods) than the 2 speed pump but at a cost. If energy is not as important to you, then good old-fashioned valves at each water feature can be used to adjust water flow and set the mood. However, this does not create the same Âwow factor as pressing a button or flipping a switch to set the mood and obviously the use of valves drives energy consumption due to higher back pressure on the pump. Just wanted to offer a few options and things to consider that may be important to your decision. Hope this helps.

Peter- Thanks for the link to the Intelliflo technical discussion. Obviously this was an Intelliflo only discussion and only addressed low speed efficiency. Variable speed pumps with BPM motors will always use less power than a PSC motor at low speed. There is no argument here. However, variable speed at higher speeds suffers from large power consumption due to two primary power robbers 1) high current inversion of AC to DC power in the VFD, which is very inefficient and produces a lot of waste heat as a result 2) Compromised impeller design because the impeller can not operate at peak efficiency for a large gpm range so the engineers have to make a choice where they want to optimize the impeller and at the same time a choice at where the impeller will not be very efficient. In the case of Intelliflo, from their published power, TDH and gpm curves, they have optimized for low speed operation and rightly so, but this choice also causes the higher speed efficiency to be miserable. Also of note, while I agree with your warning of using FLA to estimate power consumption, I would also add that the Intelliflo curve is true power consumption in watts and not FLA. Using FLA to calculate 2 speed pump power is worst case and, to your point, will only be better in the real world which makes the 2 speed even more favorable over variable speed. Just wanted to offer a balanced view here. Variable speed has its own merits, mainly low speed efficiency and ability to tune flow to plumbing resistance for optimum performance. But, to suggest using a variable speed pump for multi-tasking, which requires higher speeds, is not doing the energy conscious homeowner any good. In the case of pools with multiple water features or in-floor cleaners which require higher flows, multiple 1 speed or 2 speed pumps that are tuned for the higher flows will always save energy over a variable speed that is trying to inefficiently cover a large operating range. jj- In your case with a floor cleaning system...the floor cleaner will have to run for about 2 hours a day to get full rotation of the heads and full cleaning. For other hours of the day, the pump can ran at low speed allowing the pump to operate easier against lower resistance providing turnover and filtering for your pool. A variable speed or a 2 speed will both provide energy efficient operation for your cleaning and filtering needs. Only you can make the decision if you want to spend the extra money for the variable speed. To help you justify the extra cost for variable speed over 2 speed, use 200 watts per hour savings over 2 speed at low speed and 1,000 watts per hour cost over 2 speed at high speed. Knowing how long you will run the pump at high and low speed will allow you to calculate how much money is saved per day with variable speed and 2 speed, helping to make your decision. Hope this helps!

oops, first I feel I must apologize to msm859 following my rant about "90-counters". I meant no disrespect to your advice. To be honest, I only very briefly skimmed through your post and didn't even catch the part where you mentioned 90s, so I wasn't trying to be rude on that point. You recommended going with larger pipe anyways and my personal gripe is with those who still use 2" pipe and then boast about avoiding 90s. Respek! Note to others: Somebody could just as easily be thinking I'm a hack for using big pipe and not worrying about 90s. We all draw the line somewhere. Jennifer: The 1.5" returns are typically branched off a 2" main return line. They go to 1.5" where they penetrate through the wall because the eyeballs (trim pieces) are that size. I'm guessing that is what your builder is intending, but I could be wrong. In a perfect world, or if you were a Kennedy or DuPont, then that main return line would be the same size as the suction, so 3" is my armchair recommendation. If it was built with 3" suction and 2.5" return, I would not really frown on that either, but I wouldn't do it myself. Well actually, that's not true because I am doing exactly that on a current project, but that's because of some other fuzzy logic and it's not that my return is downsized, but rather my suction is upsized. If your pool was built with 2.5" suction and 2.5 or 2" return, then that would probably be better than average, but you'd be amazed at how much more you'll love your pool with bigger pipes. I mentioned to somebody here before that one of the first pools I built on my own, I used a 1/2 HP filter pump on 2" pipes and I was a little disappointed that the pump did not seem to be any quieter than any of the hundreds of 3/4 HP pumps I've seen in service. So last year, I did a project of several small fountains like you might see at a ritzy shopping center (these things are more painful than any pool I've ever built), each on its own filtration system. I used 2.5" suctions and returns, reducing down as appropriate for the returns and fountain nozzles. The pipe runs were all well over 100' in each direction, two of them approaching 160', and those pumps were so quiet I was stunned and amazed. If you do go with the Intelliflo, then the Intellitouch will certainly be a nice complement to that, but you might also consider the EasyTouch. In a nutshell, the EasyTouch is a value-engineered, toned-down version of the Intellitouch. I'm not familiar enough with it to know for sure that it controls the Intelliflo in the same manner, but it's definitely worth looking into. If your builder doesn't know either, he can contact his local Pentair rep. who will be happy to lend a hand. Something else I just noticed is that they've spec'd a 1 or 2 HP Whisperflo for the two laminar jets. This equation is way out of balance because those laminars only need 10 gpm each. Even with a 1/2 HP Whisperflow, you will wind up sending the majority of its output through the bypass line, directly back into the pool. The 1/2 HP will give you 2 or 3 times the flow you need for the laminars. Laminars are delicate and fussy, it's imperative not to give them too much flow or they can be damaged. At the least, they won't work correctly with too much flow, so there is zero advantage to oversizing the pump which runs them. Additionally, they should receive filtered water, so I would put a small cartridge filter on that pump (Clean & Clear 100 or 150 is fine for the task and not much $$). You also want to have the flow to each laminar adjustable with gate valves or globe valves because they are much more suited to very fine adjustment. Most builders would use a 3-way valve or two ball valves, which can be difficult to adjust in the fine increments needed for laminars. The laminars are proposed to be lit, but I do not see a fiberoptic illuminator listed in the specs. They are available with or without color, so you'll want to be sure and clarify that with your builder. hmmmm...a couple other things off the top of my head; you might consider going with two pool lights, along the long wall on the house side so they aren't shining into the house. This is a basic thing that many others here can vouch for. Regarding the auto-fill, I may be splitting hairs at this point but I don't really like the Pentair/Letro autofill. They have a tendency to cause hammer knocking in your house plumbing because of the way they're designed. I much prefer the new autofill from Pour-A-Lid or my former favorite, MP Industries' Auto-Lev. The prices are roughly the same and these two are much easier to install, service, and live with than the Pentair/Letro version. Well this was fun. If I can help you spend any more of your hard-earned money, don't hesitate to ask. hahaha