Pentiar Intelliflo VF Pump Question

[davisito45]

Hi,

I hope this is not a dumb question but here goes. I have noticed that my pump appears to have gotten less efficient in its ability to pump water. I was told by the manufacturer that this variable speed pump calculates the rpm on the following: Gallons per minute, How many turnovers of water, how many gallons in pool, and start time and end time. Here is what I have set:

1. Start time 6 am
2. End time 2 pm
3. GPM 35
4. wattage is at 725w
5. RPM is at 2550 (this is automatic depending on what start and end time is).

I could have sworn that the wattage was around 500 or 600 at the most. My Filter alarm has been coming on very often even after I clean the filters. Filter alarm set at 14 psi. I have had my cartridge filters for about 6 years. Do you think that changing my filters out would help improve the efficiency of my pump? Could this possibly be one of the issues?

Oh yes and I filter gauge for psi is yellowish hard to read so I know I need to change it out.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[mas985]

Something is causing a lot of head loss. What size is your plumbing and filter?

If you suspect that the cartridges are causing issues, remove them and see if the wattage changes at all. If not, it isn't the cartridges.

 

[davisito45]

Update to issue:

I ordered new replacement cartridge filters and installed them and it appears the problem is solved. I still have same set up as previous but now I am showing 500 watts instead of 725.

Start time 6:30 am
End time 1:50 pm
Gpm is 45
Wattage 500
Rpm 1850

Pressure is way down and pump is much quieter. Wow what a difference. We'll worth $150 for 4 cartridges.

Thanks for your help.

 

[susa]

Just for comparison, we run currently at 15 GPM for 6 hours (approximately 114 watts) and at 25 GPM for 6 hours (approximately 230 watts)

The SWCG is on via automatic relay sensing power use at over 150 watts but is not running when power drops below (Transformer power is cut)

Filter pressure is at 6 PSI during priming for 30 - 45 seconds and drops to 1 PSI during both runs. We use Features to override the Filter programming to finetune the actual power and GPM.

 

[davisito45]

Wow! That is some good savings. I have the Pool Cleaner and it does not run too well at those low speeds. I guess I could vacuum the pool manually and reap the power savings. Here in California or in my area its at .32 kWh on the Tier 4 range. I average about .19 kWh.

Thanks for sharing the info.

 

[susa]

...as do we, also use PoolVergnuegen which runs just fine even at the lower speed, just slow but does the job