I have been taking care of an above ground pool for seven years and in all that time I have almost always run my pump 24/7. If I turned the pump off i tended to forget to turn it back on. I have always feared putting in a timer for fear that something would go wrong in startup and burn my pump up. If the water level was too low, if the skimmer basket floats up a little and blocks the weir flap, or some similar thing were to happen I can't afford to replace a pump. I see everyone else talk about using timers, and no one seems to have a problem with it. Is everyone just taking the risk, or is there some way to do it safely?
timer safe?
- Thread starter jkpayne
- Start date
I have a timer on mine that was here when I bought the place. It has a clip labeled ON, and one labeled OFF. They are movable. I love it, especially for weekends away and vacations.
BTFP (before trouble free pool) I ran the pump 12 hours a day until the high CYA brink of algae madness late july or August and then it was 24/7. I'm hoping that I can save even more $ with TFP methods and stay at 12 hours a day all summer. A timer is essential for me. If it didn't turn on in the morning by itself, I'd forget until noon...and likewise without the off part...I'd forget to turn it off.
BTFP (before trouble free pool) I ran the pump 12 hours a day until the high CYA brink of algae madness late july or August and then it was 24/7. I'm hoping that I can save even more $ with TFP methods and stay at 12 hours a day all summer. A timer is essential for me. If it didn't turn on in the morning by itself, I'd forget until noon...and likewise without the off part...I'd forget to turn it off.
Keep the water topped off and the skimmer baskets clear and you shouldn't have any problems. Those same things can happen when the pump runs 24/7 also.
Running it 24/7 is actually more of a risk as the window of opportunity is greater for something to go wrong. Having said that, the real world incident rate for something like that happening is very small.