Rather than a filter, a side suction might be more cost effective. The pump will only suck clean water then.

However, if you are in an area where winterizing a pool is needed, if either the side suction or the bubbler's port is above the frost line, don't do it. They are a royal pain to plug when blowing out the water.

Scott

no freezing in our area - northern california....how does that work with a side suction? instead of a bubbler on the shelf floor it would go on the side wall of pool? excuse my ig'nance!

Hi there,

I am just a pool owner and not a PB or anything like that, but we DO have two bubblers in our tanning ledge.

The PB actually added both for only $200 during the build. He suggested them just as an inexpensive added feature. Ours have a valve attached to the water line coming out of the pump, so all we have to do to run them is flip the valve. You can open it partway to have a little fountain of water, or all the way to have quite a bit more that comes up from the water surface about 1 1/2 to 2'.

We don't use ours often at all (no kids), but when we do, they are kinda neat and cool in a fun way. They are LOUD though, ha ha.

With kids, I would think they would be a lot of fun for them, and for you to watch them play in them.

If they are not expensive, I would add them. We are in N.C. with a lot of debris/leaves because the pool is on the edge of woods, and we have not had any problems at all.

We have two in the beach entry. Even the teens love them. If you stand on one the other shoots about 10 ft. in the air. We have a valve to control flow and a switch to turn on and off. If I remember correctly, they were a few hundred dollars. PB suggested them to move the water in the beach entry.

we ended up adding a couple of extra returns in the baja shelf and bailing on the bubbler -- management (wife) said she didn't like the look so that got put to rest quickly.

misterb -- u can see the start of the build on my other thread "norcal poolbuild" -- we are tiling today, coping on friday. i'm using Tropicana Pools, we're in marin county. So far so good, father son team, have been very responsive and helpful throughout.

How well will a bubbler or two keep debris off the sun shelf? We had a pool prior to the one we are currently building and the sun shelf would get a little debris on it because the pool vacuum could not get up there. I was always brushing it off. Would a bubbler help this out or only clear a small area right around it?

Thanks

"how does that work with a side suction? instead of a bubbler on the shelf floor it would go on the side wall of pool? excuse my ig'nance!"

The suction for this particular feature would be side wall, but the return (bubbler) would still be on the shelf's floor. By putting the suction on the side wall, it has much less chance of sucking in debris that people are referring to.

If you dont have many other features, putting it on your filter pump will be just fine. You'll have to decide scenarios of features on/off that you will encounter and what would need to be sacraficed if it shares a pump with features.
If it needs to be on a separate pump, side wall suction and/or an small inline filter would be beneficial.
How deep is your step? in some cases you will need a riser to help the water penetrate the pool's surface. Mixing in ambient air, like a blower line, will give it a nice frothy look, although most just run pure water, no air, and it looks fine. I strongly recommend adding it, and it should be a minimal cost of shared with an existing pump.

if you are going to add a bubbler to the tanning ledge/ platform, or whatever they are called in your location! You can and a return/jet and adjust it to keep the platform clean..

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