new pool questions

[abitaspringsmike]

I know this has been asked before somewhere but what are the pros and cons of a swg in an above ground pool?
We were told not to by the salesperson you have to add more muratic acid to keep a byproduct of the process down making it less cost efficient.



also, the upgrade for the pool we are interested in is from a sand filter to a waterway clearwater 2 cartridge filter system with a 2 speed 2hp pump. How well do they work over sand?

thank you for any help.......mike

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP.

The muriatic acid cost with a SWCG isn't huge, and probably isn't even worth worrying about compared to other expenses.

Some people would consider a cartridge an upgrade and some would consider it a downgrade. I've owned both sand and cartridge filters, and I like sand much better. You can drink a beer while cleaning a sand filter. A cartridge can filter a little finer, but cleaning them can be pretty aggravating. The plumbing setup on a typical cartridge install lacks the waste option to remove water from the pool. Either way, the real upgrade would be to a larger filter to reduce cleaning frequency.

I can't see you needing a 2HP pump, even with the 2spd. A 1HP pump is plenty for most AG pools, and a lot of them could get by with 3/4HP. Make sure you get a filter designed to handle whatever pump you get. An undersized filter will always be a pain to deal with.

 

[Lazyman]

I have a Waterway pump and filter. My pool is 18ft round 7500 gallons. I upgraded/downgraded to a 1.5 hp 2-speed pump, 200sf cartridge and it works great. I rarely use it on high speed. The low speed uses 330watts of electricity. Can't beat that IMO.

My cartridge filter looks like it will go all summer without a cleaning. Pressure doesn't move at all, but I did take it out to clean it once because I thought bubbles were being formed in the pump basket due to a clogged filter. I ended up cleaning the filter but I was wrong about the reasons I had the bubbles. It ended up being low water levels. Either way, it wasn't that dirty and it took 5-10 minutes to clean. It did reinforce the fact that I didn't need to touch it until the end of the season. Not bad when my neighbor cleans his (smaller) cartridge every week.

Personally, I like my choices. If I could do it again, I would go with a 1 hp 2-speed, but they didn't offer that to me at the time. Good luck.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I think you'd be very pleased with that pump/filter combo LOL

A cart is a great pairing for an SWG as your chem levels stay more constant with a cart, with sand, you'll be adjusting levels more than with a cart, due to water replacement from routine backwashing.

I run my pump on low 24/7 and I clean my cart every 6-8 weeks. I can go longer but the heater won't work on low if the cart gets dirty.

From the article in Pool School:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/hydraulics-101-have-you-lost-your-head-t915.html

Two Speed Pumps
Since the low speed has 1/2 the flow rate of a high speed, the pump needs to be run twice as long to get the same turnovers per day. The good news is that the energy used at low speed is generally less than 1/3 of high speed. So with the longer run time and lower energy use, saving is about 1/3 of the energy costs. So if the pump was costing $90/month at high speed, the cost will drop to $60/month on low speed. This will vary a bit by pump model and manufacture.

 

[MikeInTN]

The two biggest pro's of having a saltwater chlorine generator is softer water from the addition of salt, and not having to manually add chlorine on a daily basis. Convenience factor is a big plus!

Cons - initial expense of the SWCG and salt, and the possibility of increased corrosion, however slight it may be. In my opinion, the pro's way outweighed the cons.

edit - btw, I haven't had to add hardly any acid at all this year. I run my SWCG 3 hours a day to maintain my FC where I want it.