Sag and intelliflow run time. There seems to be some debate

[Jday92591]

Ok so I was just at the local pool store here in Riverside County CA to have my salt level checked for my new pool. I was asking the guy at the store who claims to be a builder with lots of experience about how long I should run my intelliflow for. He asked what I had it set at and I said 1000 rpm and plan to run it for about 14 hours a day with another two hours at 2500 for the pool cleaner. he said there is no way I should be running it that low. He runs his at 1750 to 1800 for twelve hours a day. He claims that you can't move the water around enough at that low of speed. I thought the whole idea was to run it longer at low speed to keep the turn over rate at one to one and a half turns a day correct?

Does running at low speed cause some dead spots of water that won't circulate or something? Everything I have read here says 1000 rpm ish for longer amounts of time. is this guy wrong or just old school? Any professionals want to chime in? :?

 

[JasonLion]

Re: Sag and intelliflow run time. There seems to be some de

For most pools something around 1,000 RPM works great. That won't work in every pool, but something around there usually works. The slowest you can go depends on how good your circulation pattern is, how efficient your plumbing is, how many skimmers you have, and so on. As a general rule of thumb, if your skimmers are skimming well, you are running at a high enough speed for your pool. There can be occasional exceptions, but they are rare.

Lower pump speeds use less electricity than higher pump speed, down to about 800 or 900 RPM. Slower than that, and the trend reverses and things get a little less efficient. Lower speeds require longer pump run times to move the same amount of water, but even so you still save electricity.

Running the pump at a higher speed than is required or for more turnovers than is required has no advantages, it simply wastes electricity. The one thing to watch out for is that the ideal run time can vary, depending on how many people are swimming and how warm the water is. More people and warmer water require longer pump run times. So most people run a little more than is strictly required so they have some extra room for an especially hot day or extra people swimming. That level, a little margin above what is required, usually works out to be about one turnover per day. However, in pools with particularly bad circulation patterns or very rough surface finishes more run time might be required.