Intelliflo VS speeds

[Modawg2k]

I have an Intelliflo VS and I’m curious if I am not utilizing it appropriately.* I’ve always had the pump running at two speeds, a high speed for a few hours, followed by a low speed for a few more hours.* For example, right now it runs for 3 hours at high speed and 5 hours at low speed.* Should I be running this thing at more than just 2 speeds? And if so, should it be run almost all day, just utilizing an ultra low speed for most of the day?

 

[Divin Dave]

I have the same pump. I dont think there is a defined right or wrong way to use it. There are so many things need to be considered, suh as, surface debris to be skimmed, how much water you have, your electric rate, how may water features use the pump, do you have a SWG and on and on.

If your electrical cost is high, it would be good to run it for longer period of time at a low speed to save energy.
if you have a lot of stuff on the surface that needs to be skimmed, you might want to increase the speed it a bit to get quicker skimming if you feel the low speed isnt sufficient.
If you have a SWG, that requires a certain flow rate, so faster speed and the lengh of time would depend on the SWG output, weather and other stuff.
or any combination or all of the above.

So basically, each person really needs to take all the factors into consideration and run the pump how they feel is best for themselves.

With the water temps still a bit low, my SWG is turned off and there is a lot of stuff on my water all the time, so right now I run mine on 1000 rpms for 20 hrs a day for skimming.
My electrates are really low too, so the cost of running the pump isnt of any real concern.
When the water gets a bit warmer and I fire up the SWG, then I'll have to program the pump to both skim and produce enough clorine. FIguring that all out will just take a bit of time to see what works best.

 

[jblizzle]

See this for a discussion about pump run time: http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/152-determine-pump-run-time

Generally you should not need to run very long ... like maybe 1 hour on a "high" speed (whatever makes your skimmer work well) and 3-4 hours on low (around 1000 rpm for best efficiency). You just need to run long enough and fast enough that the pool looks clean enough for you.

EDIT: Just saw you have an in-floor system. Those only work at higher speeds, so it is going to be harder for you to take advantage of the electrical savings of running at very low speeds.

 

[Modawg2k]

Just today, after owning the pool for 4 years, installed a weir. I already know having this baby on will help improve the surface of my pool. When my pool was built, the horrible PB's (who I had to take to the registrar of contractors) never installed the weir. I never really looked into it because I didn't feel like I knew much about my pool until being a member of this forum. I had hear from people who said that you don't need a weir, but I'm sure this will cut down surface junk greatly.