Calculating GPM

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I don't know why this is eating at me so much. I am a little obsessive about such things. I have certainly learned a lot about how these systems work thanks to the forum.

I am starting to suspect that I have a suction leak of some sort. It seems that air continues to build in the filter and I can hear it in the heater manifold, particularly at lower speeds. Should the filter develop air over time. I can bleed it, then go out the next day and turn the air valve, air will escape then water comes out again. This quiets the water in the heater manifold. I know the Ozone systems adds small amounts of air, but should that not dissolve in the pump?

I posted in the Pentair innovation forum and a pentair guy said it sounds like air in the system. The pump always has a bubble at the top of the glass, and I do see some air bubbles spinning in the water, I assume from the Ozone. I might try to purge it really well, shut off the ozone and see if air builds up again.

There are more details about the plumbing in this thread that I used for the build:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/po ... 16151.html
 
Shutting off the Ozone should tell you if that is the problem or not but in general, there should be very little air in the pump or filter but with Ozone, it will inject some air with it although it should not be all that much. If you have too much air in the pump, flow rates go down as well as the power consumption. Part of the problem could be that the connection into the pump is letting in air so disconnect the line into the pump and put back the drain plug if that is how you are injecting the ozone.
 
One more piece of data. I have been fighting keeping FC in the pool. Essentially, I shock the pool, it goes down to .5 - 0, I shock it again. At this point, I am using the Rainbow inline feeder set up to top feed water. I have it set to 5. My schedule is 2800 RPM for 8 hours, then back down to 1500 RPM for another 8 hours. I was going to modify this to reduce the amount of low speed time to 4 hours as I think the 8 hour run already is giving me close to two turns.

I decided to check the feeder. At 1500 there was no circulation in the feeder. I had to ramp up to 2000 before I got water coming through the feeder. I bumped the low speed up to 2200 and will see if that helps the chlorine issues.

How much flow is required for the feeder to function?

I really need to get my PB involved, but am trying to figure out how to tell them what I think is going on. The main data is the pump speed vs. watts, and the noisy heater manifold. Any advise on how to engage the builder? First pool so I don't know how the heater should sound. They will likely discount the speed vs watts equation.

Thanks
 
Loweran, Not trying to be ugly about this, but, you need to stop and read Pool School. First, are you shocking the pool or are you just tossing in some product labeled "shock"? Second, FC constantly gets used up so it's not something you can throw in and have stay there. You've been so enthralled in the mechanical side of this until I think you've let the chem side go. It's time to get a handle on that before it gets too far out of hand.

I do think you have a suction side leak but right now that's secondary to the chems.
What test kit do you have? If you don't have one of the recommended ones you need to order one now.
Please post a set of test results.
pH
FC
CC
TA
CH
CYA

Water should flow through the tablet feeder at fairly low flow rates. Make sure the flow arrow on the bottom fitting is pointed in the right direction.
 
Just for continuity, I am posting my #s from another thread I started specific to the FC levels. I have the TF100

FC - 4
CC - 0
PH - 7.8
TA - 110
CH - 200
CYA - 35

Yes, I have just been throwing in shock. I will read up on the proper way and attempt that.
 

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PB suspects the check valve on the ozonator. I removed it from the pump and replaced it with the plug. Will monitor the next few days to see how it does. Does not solve for the RPM vs Watt question, don't think I will ever have an answer on that one. Might solve the air in the system though. Funny, the filter does not seem to be full of air though. I get water almost immediately when purging.
 
The RPM vs Watts relationship only holds when only water is being pumped. The introduction of air creates error in the model so if you fix the air leak, the model may become more accurate.
 
Hey Mark,

I really want to thank you for all your help. You have really educated me on this topic. At minimum, I have learned a lot trying to track this down. I am still going to get a tech out and have the check the system. We will see where that gets me.

Thank you!
 
You welcome. This has been a challeging issue so I hope you can come to some resolution. When things don't work the way they should, I always like to figure out why.
 
Well, running w/o the ozonator connected to the pump has resolved the air issue in the returns. The heater is quiet now and there are no bubbles visible in the check valve for the spa return. There is still air in the pump basket lid. It seems to increase when running at lower RPMs. I will have the PB check that when he comes to replace the check valve for the ozonator.
 

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