Hayward SP1056T Hydrostatic Installation and Removal Tool Replacement for Hayward SP1056 Hydrostatic Release Valve

I paid $35 in Dec. 2021. It was useful to install a new valve. Now, only 5 months later, I tried using it to remove the valve and it broke immediately. It's a piece of cheap PVC and was way overpriced to begin with, and I notice that the price is now even higher. What a joke.

Worked great!

I woke up one morning to find most of the water in my pool gone. I spoke to a few pool companies and one suggested that it might be the hydrostatic relief valve. We recently had a storm that dumped a lot of water on us and he speculated this may have forced the valve open and perhaps it got stuck in that position by a pebble and drained the pool. It made sense. The pool company wanted $185 an hour to replace the valve (plus the cost of the valve) so I ordered one on amazon for less along with this tool. Given how the valve fits into the bottom drain basket you really need the tool to remove and reinstall, I couldn’t do it with a wrench. All it really is is a piece of PVC with a notch cut in to grab the tabs on the valve but it’s a size I couldn’t find at the local big orange store so I ordered one despite the negative reviews. It worked fine for me, the interior diameter is a little less than the width of the valve so they drilled it out a bit, look at the picture and you’ll see what I mean. This makes the remaining perimeter with the notches thinner than the rest of the pipe and I was concerned it wouldn’t hold up but I went easy on it and the valve came right out. Installing the new valve was simple as well. It doesn’t come with a crossbar to provide the leverage but I used a large screwdriver that worked perfectly. It’s expensive for what it is, that’s why I give it four stars, but less than the cost of the service call and now I have the tool in case I ever need it again. If the tabs do break you could probably cut a new set but only once before you get to the narrower part of the tube. If I was a pro I would buy something metal but would expect that to cost much more. Good luck!

I ordered my husband this item so he could replace our hydro static valves for a pool renovation he was doing and the tool broke within a couple minutes of use. The PVC stripped without even budging the valve. We had to return the item and my husband found a video to help him with the valve removal. He still really loves Hayward and will use them for parts. Just not this valve tool.

I used this in a pool drain. Seemed to be made cheap. Had to grind it down to make it fit.

This is just a piece of pvc pipe with about 75% of the interior wall drilled out and 2 notches cut in it. The plastic that fits to the tabs is brittle & thin, all of its strength has been compromised by the reduction in wall thickness.

This tool worked. But just barely. I have this wish that every product engineer/designer should have to use their own product extensively before being able to sell it.Pros1. It got the hydrostatic valve off.Cons1. So poorly engineered it is almost laughable if you weren't so stressed out from trying to fix your pool and make it work right. Every pool owner knows all about this frame of mind.2. It is hugely irritating that the hydrostatic valve is designed to need a pretty expensive tool that is only specifically for this valve and you will probably only use once in your life. Maybe twice if you haven't filled in your pool from frustration by then.3. For the price they don't include a crossbar piece to actually enable you to use the tool. I ended up buying a long screwdriver. But it actually isn't easy to find something to fit into the pre-drilled holes that is long enough and strong enough to give you the leverage you need to turn a valve that probably has been in your pool for 10+ years.4. As almost all the other have mentioned, and you can see it in the picture, the cutout part that fits over the valve is A. a thinner plastic than the rest of tool so easily breakable, and B. not deep enough to get a good grip on the valve. So when using the tool it is constantly slipping while you worry about applying too much torque and breaking the cutouts. Frustrating to say the least.Fix one would be to fix the hydrostatic valve so it can be removed with a common wrench and bathtub drain removal tool.Next easiest fix for Hayward. Make the tool plastic thickness the same all the way through the tool and make the cutouts deeper so I can push the tool further onto the valve (that's what she said).Perfect world this would be made of metal and include a crossbar.Just so poorly done it almost makes you think they did it on purpose. And who knows, maybe they did? I doubt all 5 to 20 of us who have to change a hydrostatic valve each year can muster up the amount of protest to get something like this fixed.

Part is made out PVC and instantly broke when used for the first time.