Ready to buy pump & filter, HELP

[fishyspice]

Hi Guys,
I am back again and this time as a Lifetime Supporter. I know that I am going to reap benefits far in excess of my donation and want to thank you all in advance.
I am ready to purchase my pump and filter. In another post it was suggested a 1 or ¾ HP two speed pump for my 10,354 gal 15’x26’ AG. I am inclined to go with the ¾ HP because of operational savings. Hayward and Pentair were recommended as good names. In researching ratings and reviews I cam across Ecopump who claim to be far more efficient than any of their peers. This is all on their own website so I am reaching out for others opinions. Is there anything that I need to purchase with the pump?
I have NO IDEA what filter to purchase either. Do I match it to the pump? I have been told that in this case bigger is better and tend to agree but how big. I am stumped by the sand, cartridge, DE question. I would appreciate opinions and suggestions. I want energy efficiency, dependability and ease of maintenance. I would rather pay more money up front and be thrilled with my investment for years than save any amount of $ and live with regret. From what I am reading cartridge may be the way to go if I am looking for less maintenance and dependability. I don’t know any filter brands either.
Thanks in advance for your help. I am off to work in this frigid weather waiting for the day that water graces my pool.

Fishyspice
Creation 15x26x54”
10,354 gal AG
No pump, no filter, no worries, yet!

 

[257WbyMag]

Welcome to TFP!

A 3/4 HP two-speed pump would give you everything you need for your setup. As I am not familiar with the Ecopump brand, I'll let someone else comment on that. Going with Pentair or Hayward would never be wrong in my book though.

Were I in your shoes making your decision, I would probably go with a cartridge filter setup. Here is a link to an article that explains most of the differences, if you haven't read it yet.

pool-school/pool_filter_comparison

 

[JasonLion]

EcoPump is going to fairly great lengths to hide what they are doing. That is never a good sign. Much of the fancy technical verbiage simply means they have a capacitor run motor. Nearly all of the better pumps have capacitor run motors these days, so that is meaningless, presumably provided simply to distract and confuse.

As best I can tell, they are selling a worse than average basic design two speed pump with the special feature that low speed is less than half the RPM (half the RPM is normal for two speed pumps). From the look of the pump curves, their efficiency at high speed is rather bad. But by running at a lower than normal low speed they get some efficiency advantages which make up for their poor high speed efficiency. Of course they never say that. They never say much; and what there is appears to be designed to be misleading.

It is difficult to tell if their super low speed, assuming that is what it is, is a good tradeoff or not. In theory it should be a good thing, but there are reasons all the other pumps run at half the RPM on low, and it isn't obvious what they decided to compromise to get around that. If they have made a good quality 1/3 or 1/4 the RPM at low speed motor there could be something good here. But I'm really put off by the way they describe themselves; completely avoiding explaining what is actually going on.

 

[dmanb2b]

I'm in a fairly similar climate as you and my pool is roughly 3k gal larger, with tons of 60-80ft trees surrounding the pool. If this is a typical ag pool with a single skimmer and single return with 1.5" plumbing (standard for most AG pools) you will get by just fine with a single speed 1/2hp full rated pump such as the Hayward super pump or Pentair superflo coupled with a 250lb sand filter (oversized for a 10-13K gal pool). The result for me is that the set-up is extremely quiet, I have enough pump to push the water through 2 solar panels near the pool and I run the pump in the 4-6hr range per day. That's just me, I'm simple and it's worked great for 2 seasons. That said if you'd like to filter on low an slow 24x7, then certainly spring for the 2 speed 3/4hp. The only time I've had to backwash was when the pool overflows from rain, not because of a PSI increase due to the dirty filter. PS...the equipment pad is just a plain old 36"x36" pvc AC Condenser Pad sold at your local plumbing supply/HVAC store.

here is a pic of the pump/filter I have and the resulting water clarity I enjoy after finding TFP, employing my trusty TF100 and consistent testing

PS...please don't mind the ugly looking shed in the back...Vinyl siding and new doors is my next item on the "honey-to-do" list