Booster Pump installation question

[adlut]

I purchased my home about two years ago and noticed that the polaris never seemed to move around or clean all that well. Pressure seemed to be low overall. After one season of non-stop manual cleaning, I'm thinking that I just need to install a booster pump for the polaris. I'll try to describe my set up briefly.

The pool has two skimmers and the main drain at the bottom of the pool. All go through another skimmer basket before the pump and filter. From the filter there is a valve. One direction goes to a small filter and then the polaris and three return jets. The other direction goes to what I have been told used to be a "whip system." I basically have that side closed off, and all return water going to the 3 jets and polaris.

My thought is that I should try to change the current polaris plug to a regular return jet and then re-purpose the old whip system to be a dedicated line for the polaris.

I'm not sure exactly how I should do this though. Where in the system to place the booster pump? What type of pump and size? And how should I go about capping off all of the old whip system jets and changing one to put the polaris on.

Also, how do I see what type of polaris I own to make sure that it's able to use the added pressure. From what I can tell, it's just a standard blue and white polaris like everyone else's. I just don't know about them to know if that's a 280, 360, or 380.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. If there's any more information you need from me, just ask.

Thank you,
Ari

 

[Ranger987]

To identify which Polaris you have, you can use photos on their website, or take your cleaner to a local pool store for ID. The 360 is a pressure cleaner, but cannot be used with a booster pump. It shares water with the pool returns and often suffers from a lack of pressure unless you manually turn the valve to feed more water to the cleaner. It sounds like this is the model you have, with the small inline filter on the water supply to the cleaner. The 280 and 380 require the booster pump. I think you'll find that most people prefer the booster pump models as they clean far better.

The booster pumps should be installed so that it draws it's water off the main pump AFTER the main filter, but before any other appliance such as heater, ECG cell, etc.

The "whip system" could be isolated and disabled, but I'd recommend draining the pool below these fittings, blowing all water out of the line and installing a permanent plug(s), then locating the supply pipe at your equipment and cut it near ground level and install a permanent cap so that this line will sit unused, with no water in the line.

It's hard to comment on repurposing the whip system. A local professional would be able to see whether it's feasible or not.

 

[adlut]

Thanks for the response. I'll see if I can figure out which kind of polaris I have. If I don't already have a 280/380, I might look into purchasing that if I do end up installing the booster pump. My current setup is just not working out. I have to constantly clean the pool myself, and it just never looks clean.

If I do install the booster pump, from your response, it sounds like you think I can just place the booster pump on the same line that the polaris sits now. That would mean the water goes through the booster pump and then to the polaris AND the three jets together. I thought that this would just be a waste since it's still not a dedicated line for the polaris and much of the increased pressure is just being lost through the three existing jets. That is why I suggested re-purposing the whip system which I can turn on and off with a valve.

If that would probably be acceptable, you would suggest that I put it after the main filter but before the existing small inline filter?

Also, any suggestion on pump size for something like this, brand, type, etc?

Thanks again.

 

[JasonLion]

A booster pump has a very low flow rate at high pressure, it must be connected directly to the cleaner, and can not feed jets or returns.

There needs to be some kind of filter before the booster pump, either the normal pool filter or a special smaller in-line filter.