Confused over pool school article how long to run pump

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Bec2854

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Jun 6, 2015
49
Walkersville MD
Hello. I just read the article in pool school about how long to run your pump every day. I don't understand why the 2nd paragraph says for people following tfpc may only need to run 30 min per day and the next paragraph says you should 4 hrs/ day. Not sure which to follow? Thanks

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Also I'm leaving for 4 days (but can run pump for about an hour 1st day before I leave and can run it on the 4th day upon return) - how bad is it to not run the pump those 2 days in between?
 
As I read it, the reference to 30 minutes is how long to run pump simply to mix added chemicals. Most pools do need at least a few hours a day but as the article says this is highly variable based on pump and pool size.
 
The first paragraph is talking about the minimum run time needed to get enough chlorine into the pool. Later it's talking about circulation and cleaning requirements. It's important to consider chlorination because some automated systems need longer run times to fully dose the pool.

Four days without chlorine or circulation is going to have you returning to a dirty pool and maybe algae. I'd consider just letting the pump run the entire time, but at least raise your chlorine to shock level the night before you leave and run the pump up until you go.
 
The 30 minute paragraph is talking about how long it takes to circulate chlorine in the pool as a minimum time. The four hours deals with average time to creep the pool clean, like skimming stuff off the top.

Does you pump have a timer so you can run it while you are gone? As you have a SWCG you want pump run time to get the chlorine in the water.
 
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Thanks for your replies! I understand now. Sorry this his picture is horrible and I can't figure out how to turn it but if anyone can read it can you give me a little more insight to how long to run pump based on this and my pool size? We currently have a solar cover on and in about a week we are getting an automatic pool cover installed if that makes a difference.
 
The limiting factor you will have is how long it takes your SWCG to,add the amount of chlorine you need each day. The SWCG only produces and adds chlorine when the pump is running.
 
Well, for four days I'm not sure it matters. Best would be if you had a friend stop by and add bleach and run the pump 30-45 minutes to circulate it well. If not, the day you leave when you said you could,run it for an hour I would bring it up to shock level for your CYA and run the pump for the hour to circulate well. Be ready to run it again when you get home with another addition of bleach.
 

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4 hours is generally enough for most pools. Once you get back you can start to experiment buy cutting it back 30 minutes per day per week. So week 1 run it 3:30, week 2 3:00, week 3 2:30 and so on. Stop when it just isn't clean enough and go back up 30 minutes from there.
 
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